Homeowner's Associations....

Lesson #1:

If you want to be involved with your HOA at any level (and not a) frustrated out of your mind, and b) not have your time wasted) don't bother going to the regular meetings (for the general membership).

The meetings are about 20% substance, and 80% annoyance. It is a very good example of why "pure" democracy is not ideal. Too many "votes that count" from the uninformed (despite every effort to inform).

Go to the board meetings and vote by proxy. Be involved, but be efficient!

some fine quotes for the day...

From my Google page, but I thought I'd share anyway:

We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.
- Dave Barry

The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble.
- Ellen DeGeneres

If man does find the solution for world peace it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known.
- George C. Marshall

Laundry!

I know that the fact I don't mind doing laundry makes me strange (though I don't like to fold). I can't remember ever damaging any clothes I have, or really screwing up in any big way. There are just a few rules and tricks I make sure to employ.

1) I very rarely use hot water
Unless the load is all whites, I don't ever go over "warm". Modern laundry detergents are orders of magnitude better than the "Tide" of yesteryear when in warm and even cold water. Hotter water encourages colors to fade more quickly.

2) Silkscreen-printed items are turned inside-out
I have an inordinate amount of T-shirts, accumulated over years at high school and college. Some are thus almost 20 years old - and the silkscreen is largely intact. Put the print on the inside, and it is subject to far less physical wear from other items in the wash.

3) Don't overload the washer
As tempting as it is to get through that wash more quickly, it really compromises the ability for the soapy water to flush through laundry when the machine has too much in it. Start filling the washer with the largest items and work down to the smallest.

4) Don't use too much/too little detergent
Read the recommendations on the detergent package and realize that they are a generalization (for an "average" wash), and adjust up and down as necessary. Clothes won't get much cleaner if you put in tons of soap - in fact, it can create a mess, and your washer may not be able to get all the detergent out without an extra rinse.

5) Use good detergent
Generally speaking, any major brand (Tide, All, etc) will do a good job of cleaning your clothes. The few dollars you save (across many loads of laundry) buying lousy detergent is not efficient use of your time or money. Do some research and find one of the major or store brands that works well, smells the way you like it to, and satisfies your budget. I currently use the Costco house brand "Kirkland - Free and Clear" liquid. I prefer the unscented, as I don't want to smell like... laundry soap.

6) "Boost" your detergent
I'm dubious of just about anything that sells itself via infomercial, but somehow I started using Oxy-Clean - and after it performed a few miracles, I became a believer. I had a few cotton dress shirts that had some stains that didn't want to go away - and I figured I had nothing to lose. Filled up my 40+ year old laundry sink with hot water, put in 10 or so scoops of Oxy-Clean, dropped in the shirts, and let them soak for several hours, after which I ran them through a normal wash - and they came out looking practically brand new. Stains gone, color brighter. And the laundry tub was much cleaner as well!

Who are you?

We're all "special snowflakes", right? We're unique, just like everybody else.

Details aside, we *can* be categorized. I'm not referring to skin color or religious faith or ethnic origins. Those attributes certainly can flavor our experiences, but for the most part, our behavioral tendencies are based in our genetic code.

Many of us have people in our lives with whom we just "click". They can be friends with whom we'll interact for perhaps a lifetime. But there are just as many (if not more) with whom we just can't get along. What are the differences between us?

Some of us have a very hard time working in particular environments, or always get in trouble for taking things apart, or doing things in a different way than the "standard". Some are natural inventors, while others are more comfortable with steady, consistent work.

Years ago, my dad had me learn about the Meyers-Briggs Temperament Indicator. It is a device that measures 4 aspects of behavior, and ascribes a point value to those categories:

Extraversion/Intraversion (10-point spread)
Intuition/Sensing (20-point spread)
Thinking/Feeling (20-point spread)
Judging/Perceiving (20-point spread)

Typically, the subject takes a 70-question survey, and at the end finds where in the 16 possible "temperament types" he falls. There is no better or worse type, they're just different. It is possible to fall evenly between two or more types, as most people are not extremes of the spectrum.

Read more about it. You may find it odd finding pages and chapters that talk about you (as if written to describe you).

The Meyers-Briggs Foundation

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

A very good book is
"Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types".

I haven't read the followup
"Please Understand Me II: Temperament Character Intelligence" but I have heard it is excellent as well.

Each of us has natural tendencies, whether usually living by strict planning, or by the seat-of-the-pants. Some people typically choose from the heart, others from their head. These attributes take attention and diligence to adjust, if you feel some change is needed to suit the role you play.

The starting point is knowing who you are.

We do some dumb things...

A few days ago, I was focusing on my fuel economy, and didn't want to waste kinetic energy stopping for traffic at a left-turn - so I made the turn in front of another vehicle, knowing there was enough space, but that it was tighter than I typically allow for such a manouver. Not smart at all. But there were no horns, gesturing, or (even more importantly) damages that resulted. All was well.

Still, I found myself asking - What the hell was I thinking?

We make quick decisions all day, every day. It is the only way we can get through life without having everything take an inordinate amount of time. We rely on muscle memory, prior experiences, pre-set expectations - to get done whatever we need to do. We very often don't think about what happens when something unexpected crops up. Perhaps the vehicle 5 cars ahead of us on the highway will blow a tire, or swerve to avoid some debris. Other vehicles react by swerving to avoid the sudden obstacle, or worse yet, with panic stops, because the driver wasn't paying adequate attention and it is the only reaction that comes to mind.

How prepared are you for unexpected things in "normal" surroundings? How close to the car in front of you do you follow? How many fire extinguishers do you have in your home, and where are they? If your income stopped, how long could you keep paying your bills?

It is when things *don't* go as we expect them to that we find ourselves in the most trouble...

There *are* some smart people in this world...

We regularly hear about the stupidity that exists all around us. Just turn on the television or radio, watch any moderately successful movie, read any popular fiction, open your local newspaper - you won't have to look far. Between reality TV, talk shows and mind numbing drivel, one might be lead to think there is not much intellect out there. Certainly, much of what is offered to us is not geared to engaging our brains.

Output from the brightest and most ingenious is somewhat harder to find, but they do have outlets as well.... TED.com is one of those outlets.

Instead of spending a few hours watching TV, have a look at the Technology, Entertainment, Design website. Some of the most brilliant minds at work today are invited to speak (often quite articulately) for only 20 minutes on their subject.

Two examples:
Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do.
Aubrey de Grey says we can avoid aging.

Watch with an open mind. Listen to genius speak.

Today's language lesson...

In an IM conversation today, a friend of mine used the term "bated breath". As one trained (thanks, Mom!) to use language correctly (if not imaginatively), I did a quick Google search to determine the proper spelling, as well as the origination of this curious idiom - because I'd always spelled "bated" with an "i".

"Bated", as it turns out, is a linguistic corruption of "abated".

Read more about it here.

Thnking of Verizon FiOS?

Here is something to consider before you make the jump to FTTH (Fiber To The Home) from Verizon:

Will you ever, in the future, require the use of the telecom copper cabling that currently feeds your house? I'm not talking about the telephone lines inside your walls, I'm referring to the copper pairs that come from your street.

Verizon's policy is that once you have FiOS installed, they will make unusable those pairs that go from their publicly-subsidized infrastructure to your home.

If you ever decide that you want to switch to a different telecom provider - one that would use those copper wires - you yould need have new lines run, at your cost (if Verizon would allow it at all).

The hidden agenda:
Verizon (and other ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers) were required to provide open (low cost) access to their copper infrastructure to other CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers). This allowed companies other than the ILEC to provide DSL and other telecom services, without having to build out their own infrastructure.

Verizon lobbied hard to make sure that the same sort of access would not be required of them, were they to build out a new, fiber optic infrastrure. With that in place, they began to roll out FiOS to their territory.

The bottom line:
If you want the option to go with another telecom provider (for data or voice service) other than your cable company, get it in writing from Verizon that they will not destroy your existing copper infrastructure in any way.

Or, don't get FiOS at all.

What is your time worth?

Sage wisdom came from a business owner for whom I worked a few years ago:

I knew our office made a lot of long-distance calls, and I spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to our office manager some ways the company could probably save some money every month by subscribing to Vonage or another unlimited LD plan. Another engineer joined me, and another 15 minutes passed as we discussed the upsides and downsides.

The CEO came out of his office, and suggested that our time would be better spent finding ways to earn the company $20K than to save $200 - and that in the time we'd spent thinking about the savings (30 minutes * 3 people), we'd expended well more than that $200.

Certainly, from the company perspective, employee time is best spent focusing on that for which you have responsibility - it is why you are employed.

Similar thinking applies to our personal lives - what are you doing with your "free" time? Are you using it to your best advantage? Weekday evenings and weekends are short enough as it is - are you making best use of that time, doing what you need to do, and hopefully, what you would like to do?

For example, would it be worth it to spend $100 every two weeks to get your home cleaned by someone else, and get back the several hours you'd otherwise spend on it?

I commented to a friend of mine a few years ago that I was always amazed at what he would accomplish - teaching himself this skill, completing that project - and I asked him how he found the time to get it all done.

His simple answer: "I stopped watching TV."

What is each of your hours worth?

Adventures in good music...

What kind of music do you like?

In answering this, some would indicate a genre - (country, rap, classical, classic rock, techno) and specify a few groups that are good examples of what they like to hear. Or, perhaps you'll point to a channel on a content provider (like "FNX in Boston" , WQXR (New York), or "XM Flight 26"), because they program the genre to which you typically listen.

I have no idea how to say what I like to hear. I enjoy the three examples above, though both play music that will make me switch away to something else. I regularly listen to Tag's Trip, Space Station Soma and Groove Salad from Soma FM, but again, I don't like everything they play.

I hate to pigeonhole my likes and dislikes, because indicating a genre is too broad. I will say I like "Techno" or "Electronica", but most people's idea of that is James Brown is Dead, even though they're exposed to it daily in advertising and other media. There is soul-touching, spine-tingling electronica, but there is also uninspiring noise.

If you would categorically say "I hate country.", then you have likely not heard country that you like - and I would wager that it is indeed out there, among all that which you find too twangy or otherwise unlistenable.

So, again, to what do you like to listen? Or do you rather silence?

Daily?

Ok. Here's something I should already know well enough...

Blogging daily is hard.

With countless other items in my life which demand my attention, it takes more than this has initially received. It is said that it takes 21 days of persistence to transition a new behavior to a habit.

Is it possible for me to transition this to a daily habit over the next three weeks? Time will tell. I *intend* to do that, but the best intentions don't mean much if the implementation is lousy.

And, of course: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Getting going...

Not a day goes by that I don't learn something new. Sometimes it isn't that significant, but some days can be eye-opening.

I decided a bit ago to begin making notes of the interesting things I learn each day. Sometimes, it is something technical, and will require explanation - other times, it may be insights into personalities, or just something that I find neat.

Of course, I may learn things that everyone else already knows - and that's okay. I figure there are going to be others that may need the clue I only just found!

In any case, that's the introduction. On to the thing I learned.

---

I was concerned that there was something wrong with my laptop, because while sitting at my desk all day, the system would get quite warm. There is a direct correlation between heat and reduction in an electronic component's lifespan (as well as a corresponding increase in my power bill), so I felt it important to determine why my laptop was running hot.

Most heat in a computer system is created by the stationary electronic components - mainly the processors (GPU or CPU). This laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8600, with a 1.6GHz Pentium-M processor - a CPU well known for low power consumption.

In troubleshooting this, I discovered that Windows XP gives you the ability to adjust the CPU's SpeedStep configuration. SpeedStep allows the CPU to drop to a lower-power mode in order to minimize power consumption (maximize battery life, reduce system heat). Drivers for this have been available for all versions of Windows since Windows 95. Windows XP integrated the driver, so it functions without any notification to the user that it is there.

To change the SpeedStep mode, go to the Power Options, and adjust the "Power Scheme". There is a good amount of info at Bay Wolf's Support Site.

Addendum 30 September 2007 - One of the fellows who developed SpeedStep documents its behavior in XP in greater detail.