DMV

I have complained about the DMV before. I'm going to do it again.

I moved to the area in January, and in April I decided that it was time to get a California license and California registration. At the time, you had to make a separate appointment for each, or risk waiting in line for 2 hours. I made two appointments, and went to the DMV twice (during work hours no less). That went relatively smoothly.

Now, I bought a car. The guy selling it doesn't have a copy of the title, so we fill out a title-less transfer form. I then go to the DMV, and they say we need a bill of sale too. They say that's all I need.

So I meet the guy this weekend for that signature. Again, I go back to the DMV during work hours. The DMV then says "Oh, California has never had the title for that - Montana must have it. Sorry we didn't tell you this last time! You can't use that form, you really need the title or a copy of it!"

I'm tired of the DMV.

Goodbye, Myspace

Goodbye, Myspace. The amount of people I don't know asking to friend me, the number of invitations to events I have no interest in going to, etc was way too much.

Basically: your level of abuse is too high, and the signal to noise is really bad. I'll stick to Facebook.

Baby blogs

Let's face it, baby blogs are the new black. Actually, babies are the new black. It's summer in the valley, and I see many, many babies. Also, I see many pregnant women.

Many of my coworkers' wives have recently had children. Most of my breeding coworkers have baby blogs. They're very trendy!

Taxes and the DMV

The taxes on my new car cost more than the purchase price of the Thunderbird (in 2001), by about $8.

There's something about the way the DMV employees seem to treat me as meat and don't really show joy and are kind of brisk that makes me extremely nervous there.

Bill Monk @ Google

BillMonk came to Google last Friday and gave a great talk.

Who is that handsome devil introducing them?!

Try out BillMonk. It's fantastic if you ever go out with friends and split bills, or live with someone and pay utilities!

Google News in Arabic

I'm really glad that Google is launching Arabic services lately:
Google News Arabic
Gmail Arabic
Google Translate (English <-> Arabic)

I'm sad it has taken this long to do, but part of the problem with Arabic is most programmers design pages right to left, not start to finish!

Saving money on your car insurance

I pay $164.46 per 6 months on my Thunderbird
I get a discount of $117.42 per 6 months on my Audi because I have the Thunderbird.

Yes, it makes me greatly sad that when I remove the Thunderbird, I'll save $50 every 6 months.

Anyone want to buy a used Thunderbird?

New car details!

I test drove a car from Craigslist the other day. If you're interested here's the listing.

Details:
Audi A4 Avant (wagon)
Engine: 1.8 Liter Turbo
Transmission: 5 speed manual
Year: 2002
Color: Silver with a tinge of blue
Quattro (All-wheel drive)
37,500 miles
Moon roof
Climate control

Things it has in common with the Thunderbird:
* Leather
* Moon roof
* Manual transmission
* Pressure intake (supercharger/turbocharger)

Things the Audi doesn't have in common with the Thunderbird:
* It gets 25 miles per gallon
* It will make it up to Lake Tahoe if it snows
* It works!

Jim is already trolling for rides to Ikea... hrm...

I bought a car!

Sometimes, it's just time to give it up and buy a new (used) car.

And I have.

Details to follow...

Burbed

Burbed, the Bay Area Home Price and Mortgage Insanity Blog. Interesting read, $600k for 827 sq feet in a merely OK city. WTF, mate?

Gay Marriage ban vote

List of US Senators' votes for gay marriage ban

I suggest contacting your senators and either thank them for voting against the gay marriage ban, or harangue them for voting for the gay marriage ban.

I thanked Maine's Republican Senators for breaking party lines and said how impressed I am.

I'm a romantic

Is it strange I tried to explain something completely non technical to my girlfriend today by talking about L1 and L2 cache?

Digital SLR Hesitation / Graduation gift

I got a bunch of money for graduation - about enough for a new Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR camera. I'm having a hard time figuring out if I really want to spend the money on it or something else - so I asked my granddad, who has one.

Granddad,

As you know, I'm thinking about getting a Canon Digital Rebel - but I
am having a logical problem with buying a digital SLR.

My dad had his film SLR for as long as I remember - at least 15 years.
Computer technology makes things pretty obsolete in 5 years (although
8 megapixels will still be high quality and usb and jpgs will still be
around).

When it comes time to retire the camera, I only need to buy a new body
since a new SLR body is $600, and I'll be able to reuse lenses.

I just am being cautious about signing up for a lifetime of following
SLR technology and upgrading every 5 years.

What's your take on how long the body will stick with the times, and
whether it's worth getting?

Thanks,

Matt

Dear readers, if you have an SLR - would you have done it again? Can anyone suggest something else awesome to get for graduation? I got a nice watch from my parents - a metal band, professional watch.


[Edit: Friday 8:23 am PDT]

Hi Matt:

It's true that computer technology manages to obsolete older gadgets every few years, but the value of money also goes down at a steady rate (about 3% per year). I think that Canon has the latest and probably the most enduring technology in the CMOS sensors so there you are at the vanguard, if CMOS is the newest sensor technology. The lenses will in all likelihood be interchangeable for a long time, so that's a constant. 8 Megs is a good number for image capacity; I wish I had delayed by a few months to go from 6 to 8 Megs, but I'm not good at forecasting the future.

My counsel would be to think about it and when you feel comfortable, go for it with the thought that you will really enjoy the camera even with obsolescence built in. I still have a 35 mm camera from 1938; it's not very competitive in the current technology, but it's a wonderful antique that I enjoyed when I first bought it in 1942 for $10.00.

Granddad

My grandfather is basically saying go for it, or at least that's the message I choose to hear! I think I'm going to do it... more news to follow!

Well spent advertising budget?

Fox News has bought their way into Facebook with a Fox News sponsored group. If you use Facebook, you can see the group.

Let's break this down for you Fox:
College students: generally liberal
Fox News: slight lean to the right

Pwned

Sometimes, it pays to be a rich nerd - you're unrecognizable.

But sometimes, it's still pretty embarassing.

Why Expedia is much better than Orbitz

For my trip to Pittsburgh this week, Orbitz charged about $350 for the same flights Expedia wanted $500 for. So I booked on Orbitz.

Orbitz has sent me 4 emails asking if I want to add a rental car and hotel to my itinerary. Once was annoying. Twice was wrong. 4 times is spamming me.

Orbitz: no means no. No does not mean maybe tomorrow.

Goodbye 12" PowerBooks

Goodbye twelve inch pro-sumer Apple notebooks. We'll miss you.

Apple now has a 13" iBook replacement, and 15" and 17" PowerBook replacements. They are not selling any more iBooks or PowerBooks - so this is it folks. Looks like no more ultra portable pro laptops from Apple.

I blame browsers

I blame early browsers for the crappy HTML we see all over the internet - but not because they accept crappy html, but because they don't help developers notice crappy html. (I believe browsers should make a best-effort attemptto render crappy html so it doesn't degrade user experience.)

I blame browsers because there wasn't an easy way to switch to a strict renderer for web page developers. So web page developers could write crappy html, but it looked great in the browser!

BBC can't tell a cabbie from a music expert

The BBC grabbed a cabbie in their lobby instead of an expert in the music industry. YouTube has the video.

Thanks to Martin for finding this!

State power

Does anyone else think it's strange in a country where the states are supposed to do most things themselves, the states are supposed to wield most of the power, that I pay 3 times as much federal taxes as state taxes?

And in political humor: Live from New York... it's President Al Gore!