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Gov't mandated minivan
I have three kids. So did my mother. I drive a minivan. She drove a hatchback. Why the difference? Car seats. Since kids 4 and up are required by law to use a booster seat, and shoulder belts became common in the rear seat, it's just not possible to fit three kids across even a wide car if they all have car seats. So I need a three row car, ( Read more... ) -
Fuzzy math
I bought three paperbacks today for $7.99 each. That feels expensive, because I remember them being a lot cheaper in 1980 or so when I started paying attention. An inflation calculator shows me that $2.99 in 1980 is the same as $7.71 today, but I think paperbacks were actually $1.99 or maybe less back then. I don't really recall ( Read more... ) -
New laptop
I need a new laptop. The current one was obtained, used, two years ago, and it is having overheating issues ( Read more... ) -
I'm being bought!
My employer, Isilon, is being bought by EMC for around $2.3 billion cash. Since Isilon has around 500 employees, that means they paid $5 million for each one, including me. -
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Back in the 1950s no one put their kid to sleep on his/her back. It's not really a natural position. One indication is that the brown faton babies is mostly on their back; i.e. the place where they would otherwise be radiating heat. And my personal observation with my own kids is that babies sleep less deeply on their back. In fact, there's ( Read more... ) -
P/E ratio
I was talking with M on the way to work about the price of ISLN responding more to market news now that HP/Dell are bidding for 3Par, and Isilon is now on investor's radar more. However, the yearly EPS for Isilon is -0.03 cents so the P/E ratio is infinite. And even looking at the last quarter where IIRC EPS was around 0.06, the P/E ratio is ( Read more... ) -
Comfort
This will repeat a little of a link I shared earlier on Facebook.
"Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks, grinning at the funeral." -Kahlil Gibran
There's apparently several retirement towns that have made it illegal for children to live in the community. I fully support the right of people to live how they ( Read more... ) -
School anger
Modern kindergarten in Seattle is complete crap. They (like many places in the U.S.) are trying to teach first or second grade things to kindergartners in order to get them "ready" for third grade proficiency tests for No Child left Behind. The basic problem is that most 5 and 6 year olds aren't really ready for this instruction; in fact the ( Read more... ) -
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NYT article about the Marine Corps Combat Art program ( Read more... )