My dream car.

I admit, I've always had a thing for Porsche 914/916's. They're a dorky pseudo-sports car built in the early 70's by Volkswagen. Only in the US was it sold as a Porsche - the rest of the world knew this car as only a VW.

There's something about the low-slung, tidy lines and tiny footprint that just says "street-legal go-cart". I've lusted for a 914 for years, and only self-restraint has prevented me from shelling out a pretty modest amount of cash for one. (One can be had in decent running condition for less than $5000.)

Of course, the problem with a car such as this isn't the purchase price; it's the maintenance costs. 914s are notorious for rust, especially on and around the battery tray. In addition, the mid-engine layout makes it difficult and expensive to do any significant engine work. The engine is located very low, just behind the seats - there are storage trunks both fore and aft, with only a small hatch granting access to the top of the engine for things like adding oil.

I'm happy to report that someone -- MIT engineers, no less -- had the vision to complete the perfect Porsche 914. They removed all the internal combustion bits, and converted this 914 to be 100% electric.
After a five hour charge from a standard wall-socket, this electric 914 would have a range of about 130 miles and a top speed of around 100mph - the latter probably as good or better than the original boxer-4 engine.

I think I'd have a hard time convincing MIT to gift this car to me, and being one-of-a-kind, I doubt it'll show up on eBay anytime soon. But if you, dear reader, have any connections at MIT, feel free to submit my name when they eventually look to dispossess this fine automobile.

Office move: Part I

My office is moving across town in two weeks. It's really only about a mile difference, but in a concentrated downtown area, that's a whole different part of town. Heck, Central Park and SoHo probably aren't separated by much more than a mile, but Manhattanites would consider them at opposite ends of the geographic spectrum (among other spectrums, perhaps).

So I thought I'd start a series on the Good and the Bad of the office move. Disclaimer: This could be the first in a series in the same way as Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I.

First, The Good

• The office itself. Modern facilities, maybe even a window!
• TONS of restaurants within walking distance, including the Flippish previously mentioned California Tortilla
• A slightly shorter trip by public transportation. Also, $0.05 cheaper! If I save up all those nickels for a whole year, I might be able to buy a sandwich!
  

The Bad

• Chief among the bad is the possible disintegration of my carpool. It's been a very effective way to get to work for all involved. But it probably doesn't make sense for them to go out of their way and sit in downtown traffic to drop me off, nor does it make sense to commute to the wrong part of town and then take public transportation (rather than just take transit the whole way)
• I will miss the Greek Deli, badly. In fact, I confess: the inspiration for this whole post was today's lunch, perhaps the first note of the swan song for my lunchtime affair. Oh, the deliciousness...
  

Skylights

Now that Hil's out of the race, the media's beat-a-topic-to-death du jour seems to be all about whether or not she was impacted by the "glass ceiling". I admit, I've never been much of a fan of this term. After all, isn't that just a skylight? (In the same way that "mirror" is a fancy city word for reversifyin' glass.)

So let's just put it out there. NO, no, a thousand times no, Hillary was not held back by the architectural oddity known as a glass ceiling. The fact that she was a woman hampered her candidacy no more than the fact that Obama is a black man with a funny name aided his. If she'd been the charismatic orator with the more clever campaign staff, she'd be the nominee.

The glass ceiling phenomenon does still exist in terms of pay inequalities between men and women. I suspect this is largely because of vestigial subconscious bigotry more than overt chauvinism. But when presented with a simple, fully transparent choice between two candidates, most rational human beings aren't voting based on what's between the candidate's legs. (for some, an intern... sorry, couldn't resist)

And keep in mind - we started this thing months ago with over half a dozen viable candidates. And all the white males ended up on the sidelines.

Interesting side note - the causes of Civil Rights and Women's Rights have historically had a loose linkage in terms of historical progression. How remarkable is the manner in which they've converged in this primary. It's as if the two were never really separate causes, but rather just an evolutionary enlightenment by white European males that hey, maybe we're not the only ones capable of intelligence.

How much do you love your car?

I know people who love their cars. I've loved some of the cars I've driven. Some, I loved so much that I'd just hop in and take a Sunday drive from time to time - of course, this was long before $4 gas.

Do you love your car? I mean, really, really love your car?

Enough to take it on a road trip?
Of over 10,000 miles?
With an 11-month old in the back seat?
And a 3-year old, too?

That's what Argentinian Diego Percivaldi did. And this was no Lexus. Not even a minivan with DVD player for the kids. Mr. Percivaldi drove his 1981 Ford Falcon wagon (an Argentine model not sold in the US) from his home in Argentina to Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Edmunds Inside Line has the scoop - or see Mr. Percivaldi's blog if you retained enough of your high school Spanish.

An interesting note from his trip was the highest- and lowest-priced gasoline: $8 per gallon in Peru, but only $0.90 a gallon in Ecuador.

I'll trade you Chopper Jonze for Alburt Poohols

Thanks to the US Supreme Court, you may never have to make that offer to someone in your Fantasy Baseball league. But you should realize how close it came to being reality, and thank the men and women in black [robes] for that.

You see, Major League Baseball, which probably isn't above suing me for using that phrase on my blog, is always on the lookout for ways to take for itself a slice of revenue from every possible way in which human beings relate to professional sports. A number of years ago, a handful of baseball geeks started the first "rotisserie baseball" league, where they each pretended to have their own team of players. They followed "their" players by checking the box scores in the newspaper each day.

As you might have noticed, Fantasy Baseball caught on and is now a pretty significant subset of the American Pastime - and, as MLB argued, a pretty significant industry, too. So MLB claimed that Fantasy Baseball leagues needed to pay a licensing fee to "use" baseball players' names and statistics. (As the headline suggests, one way to get around this - as some early video games did - would be to come up with completely different [wink] player names and statistics.)

Well, the USSC refused to hear MLB's appeal of a lower court ruling that baseball players' names and statistics can be used without license from MLB. A triumph of common sense, if I do say so myself.

Think about it. MLB was suing to prevent its own biggest fans from keeping track, not only of the teams they like, but of specific players and the minutiae of those players' statistics. "Thank you for being such big fans of our product! You must now pay us even more of your hard-earned dollars for the privilege of being such a big fan!" The MLB Players Association showed just how bone-headed it could be by refusing, for years, to allow steroid testing. Was management just trying to beat the union in a game of moron one-upsmanship?

Sometimes, I wonder what I typed to deserve certain targeted ads in Gmail.

Like, for example, Banana Guard.

Get ready for bumpy dollars!

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the Treasury Department to redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

I presume that the wallet industry will lobby for different sized bills so that it can sell millions of "new currency compliant" models. Hope that they go with raised numbering or imprints instead.

Full article from AP.

In other news, a 2400 pound Boar was seen soaring majestically over Washington, DC

A former Ku Klux Klansman, who filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the floor of the US Senate, has just endorsed a black candidate for President of the United States.

Bit o' Lit

Walking down the street in DC today, I came across one of those newspaper vending machines (of which there seem to be thousands per block). This one caught my eye. It was labeled "Bit o' Lit" and contained free booklets with excerpts from published books.

What a grand idea. So many commuters read a paper (or something, anything, to avoid making eye contact with other passengers!!) on the Metro trains and buses. Why not spend that time reading a bit o' lit? Writers get more exposure for their works, publishers can expect to see some increased sales if the excerpts are enticing enough, and we get a more literate society.

I also noticed on their website that they [plan to] hand out the latest issue in and around Metro stations each Monday. I hope it catches on!

Tip: Get off the junk mail lists

From someone who spent a significant portion of his career sending junk mail, here are a couple of tips.

You can have your name blocked from "pre-screened" credit card offers by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT or visit the Opt Out website here. Note, this doesn't mean you won't get any credit card offers, but it should cut the volume dramatically. That's because it's much more cost-effective for credit card companies to send mail to people who've been pre-screened. For one thing, it means they aren't wasting time and resources sending mail to a list where ~40% of applicants might get rejected for the card they are peddling. For another, pre-screened offers typically have higher response rates overall. So you might still get a handful of offers, but they'll be a general "invitation to apply", not a pre-approved offer, and the volume should be a fraction of what you'd otherwise receive.

NOTE: The day I found out that I was being laid off from a credit card company, Opt Out was one of the first things I did. Until that point, as an industry "insider", I wanted to get as many offers as I could to see what the competition was up to.

Tip number two: 41pounds.org. They are a non-profit, and they take their name from the amount of junk mail that an average American receives in a year. For $41, they'll get - and keep, for five years - your name and address off the mail lists for

...most common junk mail such as credit card offers, coupon mailers, sweepstakes entries, magazine offers and insurance promotions, as well as any catalogs you specify.

 It's not free, but for less than $10 a year, you can save yourself some hassles, save some trees, and honestly, save some direct mail companies the wasted expense of mailing you stuff that's going straight into your recycle bin anyway.

PS - if there's anyone left who hasn't signed up for the Do Not Call list, do that too!

What's right, and what's wrong, with the internet

That's an awfully broad title up there, and I don't intend to address it very thoroughly here. But I have one example that occurred today that illustrated a little bit of both sides of that argument.

There's a construction site that I pass daily, at the corner of Backlick Road and Old Keene Mill Road, abutting the Amherst Avenue bridge in Springfield. It's a mixed retail area, with some adjacent blocks in desperate need of redevelopment. In recent weeks, masonry and steel framing have sprung up on the construction site very rapidly, but there's no sign acknowledging what's being built. I'd heard rumors (can't remember where) of a new Marriott hotel, but the framing that's up so far seems to suggest retail to my untrained eye.

So where did I turn? To the internet, of course. (Is there still a physical world that exists somewhere, or do we all exist exclusively online now?) I started out with two relevant browser tabs open: Fairfax County's list of zoning permits by street address, and Google Maps. I used the latter to figure out the approximate street address of the construction site.

Fairly quickly, I uncovered the truth. It is, indeed, being developed as a new six-story hotel. A quick Google of the street address turned up several yellow page listings for a Residence Inn by Marriott at that address. So I guess it's true - hotel to be there soon.

Clearly, this illustrates what's RIGHT with the internet. Only took a few minutes to discover what's going on at the construction site.

So what's WRONG? In short: why wasn't there a mash-up?

A big part of government's role in a free society is informing the citizenry of changes that might impact them, and giving them a chance to weigh in (when appropriate) on those proposed changes. That's why there are zoning commissions and public hearings on projects that impact a neighborhood, like this example. The problem is that we're still using 1800's techniques to manage the government-citizen relationship: public notices of building proposals, in-person hearings, etc. The fact that zoning notices have moved from the newspaper to the web is a very small start, but we can do better.

It's time for public municipalities to get with it. In return for my tax dollars, I expect to be kept well-informed of what's going on in my neighborhood, and appraised of opportunities to weigh in on proposals that might impact me or my neighbors. The tools are out there, and many of the best ones are free. I should be able to pull up a map of my neighborhood/town/county, with all current or proposed development plans highlighted and linked to details. I should be able to add county events like parades and meetings to my Google Calendar.

I already get county-generated emails about this type of thing, but they contain cryptic proposal numbers and zoning terms I don't understand. Isn't transparency supposed to be a good thing? Isn't it good to have an informed citizenry? I'm sure the developers love the way it is now; hardly any neighbors even know where to start to get their opinions heard by the relevant decision-makers. But citizens are the constituents of government, and they want to be informed. It's time for government to publish relevant information for citizens in the format that's easiest for them to digest.

By the way, I'm not upset about the hotel construction. It'll be the closest hotel to my house, walkable if not exactly a stone's throw.

Circles colliding

I'm sure many of you are familiar with that phrase. We've all had it happen: you're at a business lunch, and run into your roommate and a few buddies. Or you're on a date, and your ex is seated at the next table.

For the most part, it was rare, and when it did occur, often intentional. I'd generally make plans with one group of friends or another, or perhaps host a party (OK, more likely a BBQ) where I've invited several of my circles and I spend a lot of time introducing people. Because those situations are planned, they're generally pretty safe. For instance, if your boss is there, you might refrain from kvetching about work to your buddies as you otherwise might.

In the age of Social Networking, however, it's much harder to keep your circles separate. I have Facebook friends from elementary school, high school, college, work, old jobs, summer programs, and so forth. When I update my status on Facebook, they can all see it. Makes you think twice before changing your status to "can't wait for 5:00!" on a Friday when the guy in the office next door - or even your boss - might see that in their Facebook news feed. (And no, that doesn't mean your boss is on Facebook during the workday - s/he might see it the next time they login, whenever that might be, even if you've since changed your status again.)

At the moment, this very blog is linked from my Facebook profile. I want to share it. It's optional reading, for sure, but I'd welcome my friends to get the peek into my life that is available here on Flippish. Does that limit my choice of topics? Perhaps. Should it? That's another matter.

In the old world, context was everything. You could kvetch about work to your friend or neighbor. Everybody did that, including your boss. But make that same snide remark in the office, and it's scandalous.

So here's the issue (took me long enough!)... living in a world where circles collide and overlap via Facebook, personal blogs, etc., it's entirely likely that any snide remarks you make about a person or a job will eventually find their way to that person or your employer.

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Will it make us all start to clam up in reaction to all this open information flow? Or will it teach us all to be a bit more diplomatic, a bit more honest, and a bit more tactful in expressing ourselves?