5/22    I just wanted to give a big thank you to the guy who warned me
        that his wife stopped having sex with him after the second kid.
        This is probably small comfort to him, but when my wife started
        campaigning for kid #2, I drug my feet for various reasons. Finally
        she asked me why I didn't want another kid and I told her that I
        was afraid our sex life would suffer. She promised me that it would
        not. Predictably enough, we are now exhausted taking care of two
        children, but whenever she tells me she is too tired to put out,
        I remind her of her promise and she almost always relents. So all
        those years of reading the motd has made a big difference in my
        life. Thanks.
        \_ You're lucky enought that your wife doesn't go complain when you
        \_ You're lucky enought that your wife doesn't complain when you
           bring up promises she made.  You're even more lucky that she
           actually keeps the promises.  -- another guy w/ two kids
        \_ wow. Ok. She keeps her promises as long as she doesn't
           have a headache, backache, whatever. Man, this is the most
           naive thing I've ever heard. The good thing is that you're
           healthy-- if you can put out even with 2 kids AND a real
           office job (which I presume you have since you're probably a
           typical obedient Berkeley grad), that's a good sign. Good luck.

5/22    Dollar is fucked. Should I buy or sell Silver? I'm not touching
        GLD, it's just unpredictable.
        \_ I bought British pounds. Wish me luck.
         \_ Don't buy money.  Buy stock in a safe company that is sold in
            the currency you want to buy.
            \_ The problem is that Obama might nationalize it next week and
               then give your value to the unions.
               \_ Obama might nationalize British companies? He is more
                  powerful than I ever imagined.
            \_ I actually own stock in GSK as well, but it's safer to own
               the currency because the company's own fortunes will play
               on the stock price.
        \_ You deal with short-term instability by purchasing or selling over
           time.  GLD is still the best hedge against inflation or currency
           collapse.  Silver can often be found locally, however.
        \_ There is an arguement to be made that you should primarily want
           to hold the currency that your future obligations are going to be
           redeemed with. So unless you are planning on leaving the country,
           it is less risky to stock up on dollars. But if you are really
           certain that you know which way currency is going to move, why not
           just trade the FX markets? Lots of people have lost their shirt
           doing this, but this is how Soros made his billions.

5/22    Are LED monitors much better than LCD monitors?
        \_ OLED is still too new to know.  They're direct emitters, so don't
           have a backlight, and can turn completely off, hence better black.
           The early news was that blue pixels burn out relatively quickly.
           \_ FWIW, Zune HD will use OLED.
        \_ Dunno, but I saw a very nice LED TV for just $2K. Wouldn't that
           pretty much completely kill LCD and plasma and that price?
           \_ LED (not OLED) monitors means it's an LCD monitor with
              an LED backlight (as opposed to older monitors which had
              a florenscent backlight).  LED backlights look better, are
           \_ LED (not OLED) monitor means it's an LCD monitor with
              an LED backlight (as opposed to older monitors which have
              florenscent backlights).  LED backlights look better, are
              stronger, and last last longer than florescents, and are
              quickly becoming the standard for anything but the cheapest
              of displays.  OLED tech is much more cutting edge/expensive
              and high resolution displays are still crazy expensive.
              \_ I see. I was wondering because I saw an "LED TV" for $10K
                 just a few months ago and now they are $2K, but the
                 former was probably OLED and the latter is definitely LED.
                 I still use CRTs, man, and my TV has an analog tuner and
                 no cable, which means I have no TV in about 3 weeks.
                 \_ You didn't apply for the $40 coupon for a D->A converter?

5/22    Has anyone played the iPhone lottery? In other words, has anyone
        written a cute or useful little app and sold it on the App Store and
        then experienced PROFIT? If not, why are more people not doing this?
        I would but I don't know anyone with good design skills and too lazy
        to learn Cocoa.
        \_ So you would love to do this but you don't actually have an
           idea or want to do any work?  Well I want to be a movie star.
           \_ Ya, basically I'm saying that I'm lazy but seems like something
              that young, poor, smart, motivated Cal engineers would work on.
              \_ For what it's worth I think the app lottery train is
                 leaving or maybe has already left the station.  There's
                 money to be made yes, but it's attracted the attention
                 of real companies who can put real money into development.
                 That makes it a lot harder for a small 1-2 person team to
                 get noticed.
        \_ i am surprised there is not an advertising supported "hot or not"
           app yet
           \_ hot or not has jumped the shark.  (So has jumptheshark).
              \_ whoever has rights to this now has a frikkin goldmine on
                 their hands
              \_ i stand corrected, there is an app, but apparently it has
                 morphed into some dating interface and loses on the UI
                 \_ HON transformed into a dating service years ago after
                    it was bought from the sodans who started it.
                    \_ sodans started it? Who?

5/21    Do the English word "random" and the Japanese work "randori" have the
        same etymology?
        \_ "Randori" = "laundry".... so no.  Unless you mean the word for
          sparring, in which case... still no.  "Ran" is the same "ran" in
          Kurosawa's movie "Ran" which is "war" or "chaos/state of nature."
          The english Random is from Frankish "rant" which is "a running"
                        --brain
          \_ impressive! How do you know so much Japanese?
                \_ He's a brain.  Duh.
                \_ I have a very basic understanding of how conversational
                   Japanese works, and a more than basic skill with kanji
                   dictionaries!        --brain
          \_ But "random" and "chaos" are similar.  -- OP
                \_ they are in English... "Ran" is really like "a revolt"
                   or "the chaos that is around you when the government has
                   collapsed."  So not really like "random."  If you are
                   interested, check wwwjdic for the exact kanji readings;
                   because I am feeling especially charitable today, I will
                   give you the exact wikipedia URL where you can copy the
                   kanji and put it into the translate field:
                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurosawa
                   http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?9T
                   btw if you are up for an adventure, go ask this same
                   question at the linguistics dept. at UCB and see what
                   they say...                  --brain

5/23  stupid startup guy here again.  We got a new CFO, a veteran of
      many startups.  I asked him how many shares there are out there,
      and how much the company is worth, and, and I'm not making this up,
      he replied with the exact numbers I wanted.  I don't understand.
      Maybe he's a pod person.  This makes no sense.  What is he doing
      working here?
      Apparently we are valued at 10 million, with 7 million shares
      outstanding.  So how many shares should mr over stressed engineer
      receive?  And I should I just say screw it and hold out for
      as much salary as possible?
        \_ welcome to the startup environment. Most of the time, it's
           very much an every man for himself type of environment. If
           you can't fight for your shares and recognition, you should
           step up and fight for your shares, or don't join the
           startup environment.
        \_ Are you the guy with the CEO who has 1000x your options? Does he
           have like 500K options and you have 500? If so, 500 should have
           been a red flag.
        \_ As I said before, you should probably be getting about 1/10th of
           one percent, vesting over four years. So in this case about 7000
           or 1800/yr. If you are really senior and in a lead or architect
           role, you should be getting two to four times that. But it is
           all up to what you can negotiate for yourself.
           \_ extra 1800 a year really doesn't equate all the extra crap
              I put up with around here.  bleah.
              \_ Well, 1800 long dated options are not worth $1800. If you
                 are really interested, you might try and figure out what
                 they are worth, but the volitality is going to be very
                 hard to estimate.
              \_ How senior are you? If it's not worth it, either find a new
                 job or suck it up because the economy sucks.