isnoop.net blog

I’m in the Apple store right now playing with a new MacBook Pro. I love the backlit keyboard of the original MBP, so I decided to get it to light up in this bright showroom for a quick demo.

On the old MBP, you’d cover both speaker grilles at once. There is a light sensor in each one and the brightest of the two is used to determine how much to dim the screen and brighten the keyboard.

Covering the speakers in the new laptop didn’t work, so I tried placing my hands symmetrically all along the sides of the screen. The screen finally dimmed when I slid my fingers across the top bezel above the screen.

Whenever I blocked the camera’s eye with my finger, the screen would dim. This was a troubling revelation. If the MBP is using its camera as an ambient light sensor, that means it is effectively always on and collecting image data even when the recording light is off. This would be a significant departure from the original built-in iSights where Apple claimed the hardware that drives the camera is so tightly linked to the indicator LED that one could not record you without your knowledge.

I busted out my credit card for some fine-tuned testing. I slowly slid it across the top of the bezel and found that it didn’t always dim when I covered the camera. In fact, it only dimmed when the small lighter spot just to the left of the camera was covered. I had assumed that this was the green indicator LED for the camera. A quick trip to Photo Booth confirmed that the LED is in fact on the right side of the camera.

So, rest assured that your new MacBook and MacBook Pro are not constantly recording you as you write emails in bed with your hair in curlers. The placement of the light sensor may cause concern at first, but a bit of investigation quickly indicates that there is little to worry about.

I’ve been a very happy customer with T-Mobile for over four years now. Ever since the beginning, I have been using various smartphones with their T-Zones service. T-Zones was originally intended to be a walled garden internet service where you pay $4.99 (when I signed up) each month for the privilege of being able to view T-Mobile’s WAP store. However, a salesperson clued me in that smartphones generally have the ability to change their network settings and with a couple of minor tweaks, you get full internet access at a much better rate than the $19.99 data plan they sell.

All this changed a couple of weeks ago. At first I thought it was just my phone, but after a while of not being able to access my maps and email, I called T-Mo up and found the real reason:

T-Mobile has disabled the hole that once allowed T-Zones users to access the full internet.

As an interesting aside, T-Mobile knows all about my hacked iPhone. In fact, they have people who are trained to deal with it on a limited basis. That means that they can also tell just how many hacked iPhone users there are out there with T-Zones. Perhaps some exec saw these very figures and assumed that at least one in four would stand to have their internet access prices quadrupled. However, I won’t be one of them.

I’m currently paying just under $60/mo all taxes and fees included for 1500 anytime minutes, 400 text messages, and (previously) unlimited internet access. If I bend to their new rules, that price will jump to nearly $80/mo. At that price, I might as well transfer over to AT&T and finally go legit.

By finally switching to AT&T, I get all of the following:

• No more jailbreaking
• Visual voicemail
• A warranty for my expensive phone
• Access to the latest hardware
• A more legit tax write off since I have a business license to develop software for the iPhone

But at what cost?

• Ending a four-year run with a carrier that I really like who generally respects long-term customers
• Opening a two-year contract with a carrier who sees long-term customers as a threat, so they milk every dollar they can out of long-term contracts
• Losing the warm fuzzy feeling of saying “screw you” to the man and using my phone on a different network

So what now?

Tomorrow is Apple’s press event. Due to the fact that Best Buy just started selling iPhones yesterday, I doubt there will be an iPhone update, but there is no sense in rushing out today to buy one. Also, I’m about to take a two week trip to Europe and I’ve found that aside from being generally more expensive domestically, AT&T is also $0.30 more per minute for international roaming calls where I will be.

So for now I sit tight. As soon as I return from my trip, I’ll be reluctantly terminating my account and shackling myself into a terrible contract with a terrible company–that is, if my beloved T-Mobile hasn’t changed their mind.

Below is an email I got through Zend’s certified engineer website. The questions posed by the writer below are not uncommon, so I have posted his letter and my response for general consumption.

Hi,

I am an aspiring PHP programmer. I need some advice from the right people like you before taking a plunge into PHP. I know to know what the future holds for PHP in the web development sector. Why is there more demand for ASP.net or Java than PHP when PHP is the best option available for web development. I have heard that PHP professionals are some of the least paid people in the industry, is this true? why should I not go for ASP.NET or Java as compared to PHP? I know it all comes to one’s interest but knowing a stable path for career is also essential. Please help me and my many other colleagues who want to join the PHP community. Your kind help would be highly a appreciated. Please be frank to give your advice.

–Vibhor S.

Vibhor,

Thanks for your email. From my point of view, I am inclined to believe that PHP is actually in higher demand than ASP or Java. However, the latter two are likely to be more common for large companies. I believe this is mostly the result of corporate decision making and the antiquated belief that PHP is not enterprise class. Companies like Facebook, Flickr, and Digg are rapidly dispelling that myth.

The roots of the enterprise class myth also help to explain the question of compensation. PHP started off as a hobbyist’s language. From there, it became the de facto scripting language for low-cost web hosts. As a result, a lot of personal and small business websites sprung up with PHP as a back end. Lacking the project and budget size of medium and large companies, most jobs available to PHP developers were (and perhaps continue to be) for less pay. This is not to say that there are not good paying PHP jobs available. I live in Seattle and am one of a group of 6 PHP developers for a medium sized company. I believe we are competitively compensated compared to the industry at large.

The other part of the compensation problem might have to do with the experience curve of PHP programmers. I have seen many developer resumes and the large majority of people who claim to be PHP experts are in fact novices or even beginners. PHP is a very simple language to learn and become comfortable with, but that comfort is not the same as knowing (and using) best practices, OOP, or even PHP5. Many PHP developers haven’t had any experience working in a collaborative environment and, frankly, may not be suitable for full-time work in a group of developers.

On the question of why one should choose PHP over ASP.NET or Java, I cannot answer. I chose PHP as my language of choice for personal and perhaps arbitrary reasons. I like that it is open source, works best on *NIX systems, is in active development, offers a tool for just about any job, and has a wide and varied user base. It also helps that the language happens to have a sustainable number of companies offering full-time work for PHP developers.

One might just as well choose Java, ASP.NET, Ruby, Python, Perl, C++, or any other popular web language for their own set of reasons. You’ll find ample work with any of these under your belt. Some might have a brighter future than others, but you’ll still find COBOL programmers out there making pretty good money despite the dwindling need for their chosen skills.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your programming.

–Ian

I’ve heard a lot of people claim not to believe in luck. Allow me to demonstrate that this belief, while psychologically satisfying to some, is tantamount to disbelief in Pi or milkshakes.

Luck is not some sort of ethereal faith-based system of wish-granting priority. Luck is the result of a simple calculation and luckiness is the sum of a series of luck calculations.

The Formula

Luck = Benefit / sqrt(Probability)

The basic unit of luck measurement is under some debate, but for our discussion, we will refer to the unit as Л or “El.”

You can see the formula in action with my online luck calculator.

Benefit:

A numeric value with min and max centered about 0 and range set to an arbitrary scale (ex.: winning a free bagel = 0.8 and getting a lethal papercut on the giant novelty check handed to you by Ed McMahon = -99). For our purposes, the benefit scale ranges from -100 to 100, inclusive.

Note: The benefit value is subjectively determined value on a scale where -100 is the worst possible, 0 is neutral, and 100 is the best possible outcome. Refer to table 1a for some examples.

Probability:

A ratio of the number of times an event will happen over a number of attempts. This value will always range from zero to one, inclusive.

Formula In Action

Assuming your assessed benefit value of finding a $20 on the street is 5 and the odds of doing so are 1:400 (1/400 = 0.0025 = 0.25%), the formula would work out like this:
Л = 5/sqrt(0.0025)
Л = 5/0.05
Л = 200

Homework

Everyone loves story problems, so here’s one for you:
Lucy values her life more than anything in the world except for that of Mr. Turtle, her cat. She places the benefit of losing her life at -99. After a friend of a friend perished in a tragic futon accident, Lucy found out that the odds of such a thing happening to her are 1:4,473. Aside from the toilet, Lucy owns no furniture with a seat or table top higher than 18 inches because she feels this will ensure her safety. However, a fateful visit to Sears nullifies all of her protective efforts as she trips over a footstool and suffers a fatal concussion.

Calculate the Л for Lucy’s untimely death. Show your work.
Hint: Surprisingly, the value is negative.

Luck Calculator

Use this simple tool to quantify the luck for a particular event.

Benefit _{(range: -100 to 100)}

 

Probability _{(range: 0 to 1)}

 
Odds Percent Ratio

Calculate My Luck!

Л:

 
_{Table 1a.: Example relative benefits}

Right now is a tedious time to be trading Seattle real estate. While the nation at large is experiencing a deflation in housing values, the Seattle market is stubbornly fluctuating between plateau and boom days.

A large number of properties are going unsold for 90+ days [zillow.com] while others are subject to irrational bidding wars. Part of me wants to sit it all out for another six to twelve months, but my better half insists that we need a house.

And so, we are in the market for a house.

House #1 was an estate sale for a beautiful, large fixer-upper with an entirely unfinished basement and asbestos throughout. Not afraid of building a little sweat equity, we placed a very attractive no-strings-attached offer slightly over the asking price of $350K.

We tried very hard not to get wrapped up, but being the first house we’d made an offer on, it was difficult not to get emotionally invested. It attracted a lot of attention including two offers that ended up beating ours, both with automatic re-bid triggers that pushed the final cost to well over $400,000.

In the end, the most stressful part was waiting for that call from our agent, but we were certainly disappointed when word came that it wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spent all of those hours making a detailed scale Google Sketchup diagram of the entire house.

The buzz was that some of the other bidders had family ties to the house, so I imagine their own emotional attachment added considerably to what they were willing to spend.

Lesson learned: Remember not to lose your head over the first house you fall in love with. Better yet, don’t fall in love with a house if you can avoid it. Best of all, stay away from family affairs if at all possible.

House #2 was FSBO (for sale by owner). While outside of our primary search area, it had a nice location that made it worth considering the extended commute. Not wanting to be consumed in a bidding war like the one we’d just witnessed, I did an extensive amount of number crunching to find the true market value of this house.

Just looking at the raw numbers for the neighborhood, a house of its stats is valued at $315K-$325K. Excluding the outliers on both ends brought the house down a couple thousand, but in real estate it may be best to leave that data in since those are your neighbors, after all.

The killer feature that this house has which few of its neighbors could claim was the wilderness reserve directly across the street. I factored that in at a $20K bonus to the property value. That bonus brought the estimated value right in line with the more contextual housing valuations such as Zillow and an appreciation-adjusted comparison of the houses on the same block that have sold in the past year.

Unfortunately, the house turned out to be FSBSO (for sale by sentimental owner) and they had been given advice by someone that the house was worth $365,000; 75% more per square foot than even the nicest of their close neighbors. Perhaps self-conscious of the high price, they even misrepresented number of bedrooms and square footage.

The owner was quite galled when our agent presented the initial offer of 9% less than the asking price. In fact, this FSBO wrote off the possibility of a counter offer until I called them directly to discuss the situation. Still quite ruffled, they agreed to counter, but only after flat refusing to pay the buyer’s agent’s fee at any price.

The sad part is that this house may have quickly fetched a similarly inflated price a year ago, but I believe that more buyers are getting wise to the fact that they could buy a larger condo near downtown Seattle or a little mansion in the midwest for similar money. 2007 may shape up to be the year of the self-informed house buyer due to the online revolution in market information.

With any luck, this mixed-up market may yet produce a buyer who doesn’t do due diligence and pays full asking price just because they love the house. Then again, this un-motivated seller may still be living there months or years from now when it finally appreciates to the price they want. This person has very little to lose by just waiting until the right buyer comes along.

Lesson learned: Some FSBO sellers don’t want to know what their house home is really worth. They certainly don’t think you’re doing them any favors by butting in with your know-it-all offers. Don’t let yourself think you can convince them otherwise. Don’t let any of that stop you from trying.

Photo credit: Lance McCord

Every light fixture in my home, with the exception of those in the bathroom, is on a dimmer circuit. I’m not sure who’s idea it was, but it is kinda nice if you want to set a romantic mood by the coat closet.

Most CFL (Compact FLuorescent) bulbs come with a warning indicating that they should not be used in dimmer circuits, among other things. Always interested in saving a watt or two, I’ve kept my eyes open for dimmer-compatible CFL bulbs every time I visit the lighting section of my local hardware store.

On my most recent trip, I found and purchased two 26W (100W equivalent) dimmable CFLs at the dandy price of $10 each. I installed them a week ago tonight and they worked fantastically. They don’t dim out fully like incandescent bulbs, merely reducing to about 25% brightness at the lowest level, but they produce a pleasant white light and don’t emit any noise.

That is, until tonight.

After one full week of regular nightly use, one of the bulbs began to “click” every few minutes. This went on for only a few hours until it clicked one last time, blinked, and then went out for good. As it turns out, I may have gotten a bum bulb and I will exchange it for another to make sure. However, my hopes are fading for this early crop of dimmable CFL bulbs. With a price point around that of 20 incandescent bulbs or 5 similar non-dimmable CFLs, one should expect much better results.

Ah well. As with all new things, one should expect some flaws. I just hope these bulbs won’t burn down my home like this company’s other models were said to. Only time will tell.

My Tivo just shut down while I was watching late-night election coverage. When the machine came back online several minutes later, I was prompted with a notice about the update I’d just received. As it turns out, my Series 2 Tivo now supports WPA security (with Tivo Wireless Network Adapter).

For the sake of those who downgraded their network security due to lack of WPA support on a few lagging devices such as Tivo, I’m very glad they have rolled out this update. After begging Tivo to release this feature, I chose to buy an overpriced wireless access point and hook the Tivo up to that.

Thank you, Tivo, for coming out to support your users’ security, even if it is several years late.

Imagine you were considering your options on a $350,000 traditional home loan. Assuming you have a FICO score of 725 (US average⁽¹⁾), your interest rate might be 6.259% for a 30-year fixed mortgage⁽²⁾. At the end of 30 years, you’ll own your home outright for a total cost of about $776K–that’s $427K in interest⁽³⁾.

By contrast, a 15-year loan will net you a lower interest rate of about 6.011%. Your monthly payments will be a little bit more, but you will own the home in half the time for a total cost of about $532K–only $182K in interest.

Assuming a paltry average annual appreciation rate of 10% (US average since 1980 has been 11.28%⁽⁴⁾), your house would be worth 417% it’s original value after 15 years. That $350K house would sell for about $1.5 million. Assuming you sold it and put the cash towards a bigger home costing $1.85M, taking out a new $350K loan to cover the remainder, you would only pay another $182K in interest in the second 15 years. Sell that house after another 15 years of 10% appreciation and you bank $7.7 million dollars. By comparison, the original house would sell for $6.1M in 30 years.

The net effect of the two fifteen year mortgages is living in a much better home for half the time and only paying a grand total of $364,000 in interest while neting about $1.6M more in value after 30 years. That’s quite a difference! You might be wondering why anybody would opt for a 30 year home loan.

On the other hand, you might have figured out that the 30 year $350K mortgage with its lower payments might be the most you can afford each month; that in order to make that same payment amount on a 15 year loan, you can only borrow $255K⁽⁵⁾.

Well, that stinks. In the Seattle area, that’s 14.5% fewer houses in your price range and 20% less square footage in those you can afford (worse still if you want the same number of rooms)⁽⁶⁾. However, it’s not all bad news. If you’re willing to go the 15/15 route, your second home would be worth $434K in today’s housing dollars⁽⁷⁾, giving you 41% more selection and 22% more space than the 30 year home.

So what’s a buyer to do?

I suggest you start any home buying process by getting a pre-approval for a 15 year loan (higher payments, shorter term). Then, shop the market and see if you can find anything that will fit your needs for the foreseeable future. If you find a house you can call home, snatch it up and start building more equity at a faster pace. If you exhaust the market and can’t find the amount of house you need on your 15-year budget, go back to your loan agent and have them recalculate your pre-approval for a 30 year loan and resume your search.

If must choose the traditional 30 year loan, there is no need to fret. Your needs and budget simply lie in the margin between price ranges of these two loan types. Most of the home buyers out there fall into this range and the seem to be quite happy with it.

If you find you can fill your needs in a 15 year loan, congratulations; you are able to live well within your means and you will eventually reap considerable benefits from your good budgeteering.

References
#1 wikipedia.com – FICO info
#2 myfico.com – FICO/loan rate calculator
#3 moneychimp.com – Compound interest calculator
#4 ofheo.gov – US historical housing appreciation data
#5 equifax.com – Financial calculators
#6 redfin.com – House value mapping
#7 bls.gov – US historical inflation data

According to their website, TRI-CELL ENTERPRISES is a leading distributor of high quality electronics geared toward the true audiophile market. They have an interesting range of very high-end electronics and accessories for those with the most exquisite musical tastes.

Okay, fine. Let’s look at some of their products:

High-end Amplifiers:

Seems reasonable. Probably could use a power cleaner to go with it.

 
Quality subs

Nice, nice. Very nice.

 
Top-notch turntables

I have heard that vinyl is one of the best means of reproducing audio. Or something.

 
Magical cones that magically make your music better via means of magic

Wait, what?

 
50LB, 3 Motor, Full Suspension System Mounted Turntable

Okay, now they’re getting out of hand.

 
Cable Supports

Cable lifts/dampeners? Are the shock waves of the Persian cat crossing your sound dampening shag rug really that detrimental to your Journey LP?

 
The “Analog Disk” and “HRS Nimbus” will rescue you from harmful analog interference.

Placing checkers on top of your records and under the feet of your turntable is just so obvious. Why didn’t I think of it?

 
Shakti Electromagnetic Stabilizer

If only I got a nickel for every time I wished I had a hunk of very expensive metal to place on top of each of my electronic components in order to dampen the electromagnetic interference…

 
SpJ and La Luce CS Centoventi


I understand that having a heavy turntable makes for better playback, what with inertial stability and all. However, a 100lb Plexiglass, steel edge weighted turntable is nearly as much overkill as a diesel engine smoothie machine.

 
So, seriously… This site displays a decent array of wholly reasonable products, but there is a disturbingly large number of mindless audio toys that seem to be more snake oil than sound-worthy. Can anyone dispel my misgivings on products such as the Shakti, or perhaps just confirm that the most hard-core audiophiles really are this dumb?

CAPSoff has embarked on a crusade to eliminate the Caps Lock key from standard keyboards. I have used applications such as Toggler for Windows for years to automatically control the Caps Lock key, but the idea of eliminating it altogether seems fairly reasonable. It is true that it causes more headaches than it prevents for most people.

If not eliminated, I would strongly advocate popular operating systems adding an option to delay toggling the Caps Lock key on until it is held for a few seconds. Several applications already include a “smart caps” feature that automatically turns off caps if you begin a sentence holding down the shift key and then type several more letters without it, as you would if you didn’t mean to turn on caps. Enabling these features system wide would prevent the most common problem of inadvertent caps typing.

Another solution would be to remove the Caps Lock key and make a new convention of pressing both shift keys at the same time to trigger lock-shift. It may seem obscure, but Ctrl+Alt+Del was also obscure to you at one time as well.

See: http://capsoff.blogspot.com/