Why Eclipse Should Autosave Every Minute

So guess who just lost power AGAIN. Arg! This time I did lose a bit of mid-refactoring work. And I was supposed to have a 4 o'clock phone meeting to discuss said work...

Categories: work

Carnival of Personal Finance Submission

I'd recently heard about blog carnivals, so when I wrote up my net worth post I decided to submit it to the Carnival of Personal Finance to see what happens. My post was one of the 40 accepted and posted over at the No Credit Needed blog!

So, welcome Debbie and any other new readers who've stumbled over here from the carnival post.

Categories: money, blogging

Looking to Set Up DSL

Forrest and I are looking to set up internet in our SLO apartment ASAP. I can't speak for Forrest, but I get the shakes when I'm living in a place without internet access. (In places where I don't expect internet, I'm fine; for example, I didn't even think about it while backpacking. So I'm not sick. Promise!)

There aren't many DSL providers in SLO. We're basically looking at AT&T, Digital Putty, and Charter. AT&T looked the best -- $55/month for 5 static IPs -- so I called them. Their site said there was a $250 technician installation fee, but we were hoping to get it waived. Alas, on the phone they told me the only way they waive that fee is if we sign up for $25/month worth of extra service on a phone line through AT&T. But this fee only exists for the static IPs; we can self-install if we get dynamic IPs. Because going to the router's configuration page is soooo difficult. Arg.

Forrest's giving them a call to see if he can get anywhere with them. Maybe he'll connect to a more reasonable person. Otherwise, we'll have to reconsider dynamic IPs, or go look at Digital Putty and Charter.

Categories: Internet

Saturday Mecca

Arcade and Lunch at the Mecca

Today was the actual arcade-visiting part of Mecca. I met everyone at SVGL (though not before going the wrong by second-guessing my memory of its location). I played two rounds of DDR Extreme -- 5 songs for $1, instead of 3 for $1 on the Supernova. I've played maybe once or twice in the past year, so I'm nowhere near as good as I once was. Even so, by the end of my second set I got back up to doing 7-footers (my comfort level when I was actively DDRing).

We eventually got tired of SVGL. Another Golfland in the area is MGL, which most of the group wanted to hit up as well. We decided to get lunch at a Red Robin in between SVGL and MGL. Highlights of the Mecca lunch:

• Waffles ordered a chicken teriyaki burger medium-rare. The waitress had to explain that the chicken teriyaki burger was in fact made of chicken, not beef, and so they couldn't prepare it undercooked for him. He defended himself by claiming the "burger" in the menu item's name overrode the "chicken" part, so he was expecting beef despite the name. Sure, Waffles, we believe you. ;)

• Forrest was telling me that Robert hadn't played WoW in over a year. (The year before that, he had failed a class because he couldn't stop playing WoW.) To confirm his statement, Forrest asked Robert, "You've been clean for a year now, right?" Robert immediately responded, "Yeah, I haven't played WoW for a year." I laughed that he knew exactly what Forrest was referring to. Robert explained, "Forrest and I had been talking about it a couple days ago. And it's the only thing I haven't done in a year." At which point we had no choice but to burst out laughing.

• Bottomless steak fries! Stolen from Forrest, of course.

Eating often makes me sleepy; since I didn't feel like going out to MGL anyway, I drove myself hope and took a nap.

Dropping By My Mom and Sister

I had talked to my mom on the phone earlier, and she and Thing 1 happened to be in Los Altos at Full Thread Ahead to attend the Yarn Harlot's book-signing. When I woke up from my nap, I headed over there to visit with them while they waited in line (for hours!).

My mom had just finished the custom bra she'd been making for me (with instructions from a local teacher and Beverly Johnson's book). She brought it with her to Los Altos so I could try it on (in the bathroom, hehe). It being the first fitting, there were of course some minor tweaks needed. Unfortunately, the local teacher won't have time for another appointment until after I leave for SLO. Grr.

While waiting around in the book-signing line, we chit-chatted with the woman in front of us. We first noticed her because she was wearing a pirate sweatshirt. (As you know, Bob, my mom's online personal is Pirate.) We got to chatting with the woman, who turned out to be wearing a "natural 20" shirt underneath her pirate sweatshirt.

When I complimented her on the shirt, too, she deduced that I must be a fellow gamer (of sorts, anyway). She dug through her bag and handed me a square decal with a white triangle on it. She said her friensd had printed up about 1,000 of these; they were meant to be "calling cards" for gamers, creating a "Go Play" secret society of gamers. I thought she and her friends were just being overly optimistic nerds... but then I just googled for it, and it turns out there's a Go Play site! (It does look pretty small-groupish, though. Also found a forum thread asking "What's with this Go-Play thing?" -- oh good lord, that thread's got 54 pages! Found the original creation thread, too.)

Anyway. So my sister finally got to the front of the line to get her two books signed. The Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie) was very tired at this point and her hearing was none too good. She seemed to be having a great deal of trouble spelling my sister's name, even after we spelled it out twice. Stephanie said she'd initial the misspelling and correct it; she even misspelled her own name on the second book! And when we walked away and actually looked at the books, we realized what the problem had been. She'd thought my sister had said her name was Allison! At least has three letters in common... ;)

Categories: friends

Ya He Ganadao Entradas a Disneyland

Update, December 10, 2006: While looking at Google Analytics statistics for my blog, I discovered an unexpectedly popular search term: 786-573-9571, and its variously punctuated brethren. A quick Google search shows that this blog post is the only place on the web (that Google knows about) to document this phone number.

So, Internet peoples, have you too been spam-called by this company? Does anyone have any more information on them?

My cell phone rang this afternoon. I didn't recognize the number (786) 573-9571, but I answered anyway. Everything in italics was actually spoken in Spanish, but I don't remember what they said verbatim, so I've written what they meant in English instead:

Me: Hello?
Recording: You have already won tickets to Disneyland! <lots more hype>
    To claim your tickets, press 9 to speak to an operator now!
Me: <press 9>
Él: Hello! May I have the pleasure of your name?
Me: <rolls eyes> Me llamo Catherine, pero... ¿hablas inglés?
Él: Do you speak Spanish?
Me: Un poco.
Él: Un poco... Well, we have to talk with you completely in Spanish.
Me: Okay.
Él: So. May I have the pleasure of your name?
Me: Soy Catherine.
Él: ¿Qué?
Me: Catarina? Catherine.
Él: Ah, sí. And your telephone number?
Me: Pero, ¿qué contesto? ¿Qué entradas a Disneyland? No sé...
Él: Yes, of course. Your telephone number?
Me: Uh... sin más información, no quiero darle _mi_ información.
Él: <click>
Me: I knew it!

Normally I hang up on these sorts of phone calls the instant I recognize them for what they are. But this one was in Spanish! Hehe. It was kinda fun, even though I knew the "prize" part was bull from the beginning. :)

Anyone know what this scam actually hopes to accomplish?

Categories: Spanish

Socializing With My Ex-Fiancé

Every summer, PolyBemani (Cal Poly's DDR club that my friends founded my freshman year) puts on an unofficial mecca. Whatever far-flung corners of the globe (or state, really) we happen to be in, we all gather at some arcade-heavy locale for a long weekend of socializing and geekery. I missed last year's SoCal one, so when we decided to host it 10 minutes from where I'm staying this summer, I definitely wanted to attend.

Awkward fly in the ointment: Tim is part of PolyBemani still, so he's attending, too. More awkward: everyone is staying at Tim's parents' house. I have excused myself from the socializing they're doing at his house. Since Tim was the "wronged" one (I did the breaking up), I have been playing by ear how to act around him. He hasn't made any move to become friends again; we remain polite but avoidant. So I'm missing out on the hanging out, but it seems the only option if I want to be respectful to Tim (and his parents too, who most likely don't want to have anything to do with me anymore).

But the group went out for dinner tonight. Forrest called me up to let me know, and I met them all at Applebee's. Tim is (finally! yay!) dating someone. Her name is Aurora, and she's a 17-year-old getting her AA in computers. Her age is sorta creepy, what with Tim being 21 -- just listen to Loveline any night to hear them talk about age differences when one is jailbait. But they seemed okay together. Lots of giggling and ignoring the rest of the world.

We were a party of eight at Applebee's, so we were split between two round tables pushed together. The first table filled up with Joe, Robert, Waffles, and Shay, which left me and Forrest to sit with Tim and Aurora. Not awkward, no sirree.

I was at the far end of our table, so I couldn't hear the rest of the group's discussions and didn't want to join in with Tim and Aurora. So for most of the time we were there waiting for our food, I kept scooting my chair closer to the rest of the group, trying to hear enough of the group's conversation to not be bored. Forrest looked at me weird -- perhaps he didn't realize how uncomfortable I still feel around Tim, who's never mentioned forgiveness or not-angry-anymore-ness.

Then, after dinner, they all decided they would go back to Tim's to play some boardgames. I went home, not wanting to deal with Tim's parents or be around Tim any more tonight. I feel left out but without recourse to do anything about it so long as they're hanging out at Tim's. Hopefully I'll enjoy the Flea and arcading more tomorrow.

Categories: relationships

Lost Power at Work Today

We lost power at work today. The simultaneous darkening of the building, the startled cries of some employees and the anguished swearing of others (the ones who hadn't just hit "Save") made for a very exciting environment. Everyone popped their heads up out of their cubes to look around at the mayhem.

The power tried to come back on, but it ended up phasing in and out, making the lights flicker like in a horror movie. We clustered around managers' or friends' cubicles to chat. My manager said this was the third time they'd lost power in 18 months; why a UPS is not standard-issue would be a good question for the Powers That Be. I argued the case for a friendly, productivity-increasing, noisy generator in the cube farm, but no one listens to the intern. ;)

Apparently other buildings had lost power earlier in the day. And from previous experience, they know that the power outage can last long enough that they just send everyone how. Suxor for deadlines.

Luckily, I can do my current task from home, so I won't actually be short-changed my hours/pay.

Update, 9/8: no power today, either. I worked from Starbucks instead. Life sure is tough sometimes. ;)

Categories: work

Calculate Your Expected Net Worth

So you have some savings socked away (or not, oops), but maybe you're wondering how it compares to others of your age and income, or maybe you want to know if you'll be able to retire on that amount of savings. (Twenty-two-year-olds are allowed to think about retirement savings, right? :) ) I've done a bit of reading on the subject (though, notably, I've not read the recent "The Number" books out there). Below are two formulas I've found for estimating expected net worth.

My opinions of these formulas reflect the fact that I'm new employee in the workplace and thus my "expected net worth" calculations are very susceptible to certain assumptions made by the formulas.

A Very Rough Formula

I first came across the notion of "expected" net worth while reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. (The link is an Amazon Affiliate link, FYI -- full disclosure and all that.) In their book, they suggest the following formula to calculate your expected net worth:

expected net worth = (age)(gross income) / 10 - inheritance

(Normal mathematical precedence rules apply.) So they're saying that inheritance doesn't count, for one thing; your expected net worth is how much you have contributed, not how lucky you were that a rich relative liked you and kicked the bucket. Fair enough.

What I dislike about this formula, however, is that it's very wrong for youngins who haven't had a chance to earn much money yet. According to the formula, I should have a net worth of $44k by now. But I've only had 3 summer jobs so far! How in the world does it make sense for any 22-year-old but a college entrepreneur to have had a chance to amass that kind of net worth? Especially considering many college students will have a negative net worth from student loans and/or credit card debt until they hold down their first full-time job.

They don't give an explanation of how they derived this formula, so here is my own interpretation. Most personal finance books and blogs advise you to save at least 10% of your gross income. (The more you can put away, and the smaller the percentage of your income your can comfortably live on, the better.) So at 10% savings goal would explain the "(gross income) / 10" term. Multiply that by each year you've been saving, and don't count inherited money in the total. The formula overstates how many years you've worked and it doesn't take into account compound interest. Perhaps Stanley and Danko hoped the over- and underestimates would balance out?

To be fair, the authors do state that they have a super-duper fancy formula they use in their own research, and that this formula is just a quick-and-dirty version. Still, why do they not say "working years" instead of age? If I claim I've worked an entire year at my gross income (which I haven't), I'm suddenly above their "expected" value. If you're more like whatever their typical case is, then perhaps this formula may still give you useful values. (These shortcomings are also discussed on Old Niu's blog.)

A Better Formula

A second formula is presented by Marotta Asset Management via the blog Free Money Finance:

adult years = age - 20

expected net worth = (adult years / 240 + 0.1)(adult years)(gross)

Change the adult years calculation if you started working at an age significantly different from 20. I used the formula as-is, and the number it gives me still seems reasonable. YMMV. This second formula was also presented without an explanation of derivation.

For example, this formula says my net worth should be 0.217 times my annual gross income, or $4.3k. This seems much more reasonable for a 22-year-old to have accomplished. I have no sense of how much an older person with a higher income should be expected to save, so I can't comment on how well this formula or the Stanley and Danko one works for other demographics. (But do check out MSN Money's article for some median figures of different age groups.)

Note that, technically, the Marotta formula isn't meant to show your net worth. It's meant to say how much you should have saved by the time you retire (they assume at 72) in order to live off your savings at your current income level. Think of this number, then, as a minimum expected net worth; you may well have other investments and assets that push your total net worth higher by that age.

Conclusion

Neither of these formulas cope well with people whose income is currently in flux. Obviously, a more advanced analysis would be needed to take each year's individual gross into account. But if you're looking for ballpark figures, plug your age and income in and see what comes out. In any case, the end result will likely be the same: save more, spend less.

Update, 9/11: Based on a comment by Debbie, I've created an Excel spreadsheet that takes into account varying income levels per year. Suggestions for improvements welcome!

Categories: money

What Topics Are You Most Interested In Reading About?

If I were to devote myself more to my blog, what topics would you be most interested in reading about? What topics have you most enjoyed in the past? When you check this site, what do you hope I'll have written about?

Brainstorming about things I have written about that I could write more about:

• daily goings-on
• life after college
• the Internet
• programming
• book reviews
• conlanging
• linguistics

Or you might be interested in learning along with me, a beginner in:

• personal finance
• learning languages
• personal development
• health and fitness
• drawing
• writing

I'd really appreciate if your readers out there could respond, either via comments or email, whichever you prefer. Thanks!

Update, 8:42 PM: Additionally, it'd be useful to know what other sites you visit regularly. What RSS feeds do you subscribe to, if you're into that sort of thing?

Categories: blogging

Getting Up To Speed on New Codebases

This post isn't a how-to, it's a question. When you start a new job as a programmer (whatever title you actually have), how do you quickly and accurately familiarize yourself with a company's existing codebase? In the complex systems of the real world, there's certainly not enough time to just read through everything, the way you can for school projects.

While you're learning the codebase but still required to develop and commit your own work, it seems impossible to avoid making mistakes that seem idiotic to everyone else, simply because you didn't know to look for Qux.doBar() when you thought Foo.bar() was the functionality you wanted. It's frustrating, and I'm hoping my fellow programmer-readers will have some insights.

Categories: programming, learning