leifw

The [US] officials also noted that while Obama gets more threats than usual as the first African-American U.S. president

# posted by leifw @ 10:37 AM 0 comments

• A ladder in the middle of South 23rd Avenue was causing a traffic hazard around 8 a.m.
• Police could not find a black cow that was reportedly out of its pasture off Stucky Road.
• An 86-year-old Bozeman woman was cited for shoplifting and released after she left a store on North 19th Avenue without paying for some items.
• Dog feces were left on the porch of a home on Sanders Avenue.
• A man who appeared to be passed out in a vehicle on North Seventh Avenue was just taking a nap between making deliveries.
• A reportedly vicious dog ran away when he heard the man he was threatening on Shadow Circle cock his shotgun. The dog was also vicious towards deputies. Its owner was warned.
• Two cows in a driveway on Norris Road were headed for the road around 9:30 a.m.
• The driver of a large semi-truck tried to run another driver off the road at the Logan interchange and flipped the man off.

# posted by leifw @ 8:50 AM 1 comments

All your downside are belong to us

# posted by leifw @ 7:32 PM 0 comments

If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other things being equal, the best plan is to let as few things into your identity as possible.

...

But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.

# posted by leifw @ 12:08 PM 0 comments

A coworker of mine was about to go postal after dealing with some highly #regioned code, so I offered to fix it up for him. There are probably a bajillion ways to remove regions already, but here's another. This assumes you've got a Unix environment at your disposal.

1. Get a fresh check out of your source code
2. Change to a directory that you want to fix recursively.
3. Get a list of all the files that contain regions and store it for later.
   grep --include='*.cs' -lRP '#region|#endregion' * | tee files
4. Ensure that grep found approximately the expected number of files.
5. Remove all of lines with regions.
   for $i in `cat files`; do sed -ibak -r '/#region|#endregion/d' $i; done
6. Ensure your code builds and your unit tests pass.
7. Remove whitespace from lines which contain only whitespace.
   for i in `cat files`; do sed -i -r 's/^[ \t]+$//' $i; done
8. Ensure your code builds and your unit tests pass.
9. Remove consecutive blank lines, leaving a single blank line.
   for i in `cat files` ; do sed -i '$!N; /^\(\)\n\1$/!P; D' $i; done
10. Ensure your code builds and your unit tests pass.
11. Commit!

# posted by leifw @ 4:35 PM 0 comments

It occurred to me that the apparent separation of the bodies was probably significantly less than actual, so I did the math to calculate the number of pixels that ought to separate them based on their sizes in the image. In case you're interested, the ratio of the Moon's average distance from Earth to its diameter is about 110. Then I created a new image that showed how far apart they ought to be to reflect reality.

The corrected image makes me think a few things.

1. There is an awful lot of nothing out there.
2. Those Apollo missions were astonishing.
3. When somebody tells you that x of y lined up end to end would reach to the moon and back, it's probably further than you think.
4. Gravity is a wacky, wacky force. It seems unintuitive that any attractive force could hold two bodies together at that distance. (There must be a really cheese declaration of devotion to be derived from that.)

# posted by leifw @ 3:25 PM 1 comments

The hardest thing I ever did was to be an honest man, to accept my responsibilities.

# posted by leifw @ 11:06 AM 0 comments

My primary reason was that he didn't need my vote. Even when I filled in my absentee ballot two weeks ahead of time, it was pretty obvious that Obama was going to win. Some people watch sports; I read electoral college prediction drivel. Regardless of whether I desired him as president, I was convinced my vote wasn't going to decide who sat at 1600. Consequently, I decided to spend my vote to send a message.

I abhor the Bush administration and all other Republicans who speak of limited government, fiscal conservatism, and personal rights, yet have supported or claimed unitary executive power, have overseen the increase of the national debt to GDP ratio through the last 20 years of Republican presidency, and supported the USA PATRIOT Act.

It was clear that the Republicans would be the minority party for a while. I cast a vote to say to them, when you come back, please stick to the ideals that you claim. The Democrats will do a fine job of being a big government party that socializes. They will tax and spend. The nation does not need a borrow-and-spend party. The nation needs a conservative party that's actually conservative and does not lead the way in nationalizing industries. I expect the Democrats to do that. I expect them to do it in a competent, punitive way. I am embarrassed of a Republican President and his Treasury Secretary demanding 5% of our GDP be borrowed and given to one man to spend without oversight. I am shamed that he would spend that money to nationalize in a way that effectively gave those recklessly self-destructive corporations handouts equal in size to the equity stake required of them. Shame.

I am appalled by conservatives who see education as elitist, learning as suspect, and science as untrustworthy. They extol the virtues of our Founding Fathers, but they reject the life-long-learning ethic of those men. (c.f. 1776) The Bush-Palin wing of the party seems to value ignorance, instead. They seem to believe that current events have a clear liberal bias and should, therefore, not be understood. They value technology and its wealth-building, military-power-extending, nation-glorifying, life-preserving benefits, but revile as wasteful and immoral the basic research which produces those innovations.

While Obama did not need my vote, the Republican party desperately needed what little guidance I could offer by voting for a member of their party who is actually a conservative; who believes in listening to those with whom he disagrees in order to be informed; who defends balanced budgets as fervently as other Republicans clung to spending more than a bailout's worth on spreading Democracy in the Middle East.

# posted by leifw @ 9:35 PM 7 comments

In the past I’ve dug around, found a sample ballot, researched the issues, filled in my sample appropriately, taken the sample to the polls, waited in line, and copied from the the sample to the actual.

This year I sat down at the kitchen table with my notebook, the Google, and my actual ballot. Then I researched, filled, and mailed.

Montana lets you check a box on your absentee ballot that causes the clerk to send you an absentee ballot for all future elections. Of course, I checked it.

The only downside of voting absentee in Montana is that you can only request such a ballot in the window of 75 days before to 0.5 days before an election. Now that you too may want to vote absentee, you'll just have to wait until the next election to remember to apply.

# posted by leifw @ 9:41 PM 1 comments

This is a crisis spawned, in large part, by our own delusion.

We wanted to believe in ever-rising stocks, in a shop-till-the-terrorists-are-defeated foreign policy and homes that were worth whatever our mortgage broker told us.

For eight years, our government borrowed to pay for wars, tax cuts and prescription drugs, while we borrowed to pay for HDTVs, iPhones and Xboxes. Buy now, pay later wasn’t just a sales pitch, it was fiscal policy.

Later is now. To fix our economy we first must change our views of debt and savings.

That will take sacrifice, the one word from the president-elect’s speech that we must hear before all others.

# posted by leifw @ 9:26 PM 0 comments

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

# posted by leifw @ 10:07 PM 0 comments

I defy anyone to give a coherent explanation of what today's Republican Party, under George Bush and now John McCain, wants to do except perpetuate itself in power.

When a political party reaches the point of lurching incoherence, the most effective cure is a good, long spell in the wilderness.

# posted by leifw @ 8:17 AM 0 comments

I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for.

Eight years of 'conservative' government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

# posted by leifw @ 8:11 AM 0 comments

It's a fiesta in my arteries.

# posted by leifw @ 2:09 PM 0 comments

I do not believe that history is going to be very kind to this president. I think that most of the time history is about a presidency, and a president. And the vice president is almost always a footnote in that story. But I believe that in this case the history is going to treat both the president and vice president unkindly almost in equal part.

# posted by leifw @ 9:48 PM 0 comments

Bush lands in Texas; Residents urged to leave

# posted by leifw @ 12:33 PM 0 comments

If you look at the list, you can see that anyone who's ever shot a gopher's got a speaking engagement here.

# posted by leifw @ 12:23 AM 0 comments

The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships ... have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times.

The recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade.

# posted by leifw @ 12:41 PM 1 comments

With the market's recent downswing, the possibility has become much more likely. We're almost exactly 1.75 years from the 10 year anniversary all time high of the S&P 500 index, 1527.46 on March 24, 2000. Today the S&P 500 is around 1282. To avoid being the worst 10 year span, the S&P needs to stand at 1715 in 21 months. That's a gain of 33.8% and an annualized gain of 18.1%.

Steven Pearlstein seems to think we may be headed for the record books, judging based on the headline, "This Recession, It's Just Beginning," of his WaPo column.

# posted by leifw @ 12:29 PM 1 comments

Epic. I almost died three times but I’d do it again.

The race's nearly 600 mile long course is currently being run, biked, swam, climbed, etc. over a big chunk of southwestern Montana. The leading teams are performing shockingly well, fundamentally outclassing the bottom two thirds of the pack, which I find truly amazing because I suspect anyone who would pay $12,500 to race under their own power for 600 miles is a superlative athlete. That the leading teams seem to completing the course twice as fast as the other teams is astonishing.

I really don't have much respect for the physical abilities of the players in many of the widely-viewed sports. I really don't see much athleticism demonstrated in swinging a stick at a sphere and standing around in a grassy field for quarters of an hour at a time. These folks, I respect. I've hiked short sections (at most 14 miles at a time) of the course they're following and I was really tired afterward. I've kayaked the Yellowstone, which is tamer than the Gallatin, and I was scared. They're good and they're crazy.

# posted by leifw @ 9:38 PM 0 comments

The PSC says homeowners and businesses should do all they can now to insulate their homes and offices.

# posted by leifw @ 8:54 AM 0 comments

It is hard for me to find the words to express what a massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy this is...

This from a president who for six years resisted any pressure on Detroit to seriously improve mileage standards on its gas guzzlers; this from a president who’s done nothing to encourage conservation...

This deadline is from a president who hasn’t lifted a finger to broker passage of legislation that has been stuck in Congress for a year, which could actually impact America’s energy profile right now — unlike offshore oil that would take years to flow — and create good tech jobs to boot.

# posted by leifw @ 9:07 PM 0 comments

Even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer Continental Shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best.

# posted by leifw @ 8:05 AM 0 comments

He made some poor choices last night.

# posted by leifw @ 8:58 AM 0 comments

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad — an image dented by the Iraq war, President Bush’s invocation of a post-9/11 “crusade,” Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the xenophobic opposition to Dubai Ports World managing U.S. harbors — than the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.

# posted by leifw @ 11:36 PM 0 comments

There is no shame in recognizing your failings or getting help if you need it. The tragedy comes when we fail to take responsibility for our weaknesses and surrender to them.

# posted by leifw @ 2:14 PM 0 comments

I was visiting my local Toyota dealer in Bethesda, Md., last week to trade in one hybrid car for another. There is now a two-month wait to buy a Prius, which gets close to 50 miles per gallon. The dealer told me I was lucky. My hybrid was going up in value every day, so I didn’t have to worry about waiting a while for my new car. But if it were not a hybrid, he said, he would deduct each day $200 from the trade-in price for every $1-a-barrel increase in the OPEC price of crude oil. When I saw the rows and rows of unsold S.U.V.’s parked in his lot, I understood why.

# posted by leifw @ 10:46 PM 0 comments

Unless physical things can be explained by mechanical laws, God cannot, even if he chooses, reveal and explain nature to us.

# posted by leifw @ 7:03 PM 2 comments

Schweitzer: Well, we’re putting up with the Federal government on so many fronts, and nearly every month, they come out with another harebrained scheme, an unfunded mandate, to tell us that our life is going to be better if we’ll just buckle under on some other kind of rule or regulation. We usually just play along for a while and we ignore them for as long as we can. We try not to bring it to a head, but if it comes to1 a head, we’ve found that it’s best to just tell them to go to hell and run the state the way you wanna run your state.

Unfortunately this time around they've really got a hare-brained scheme. This is the way it works. This REAL ID that congress has come up with was supposed to help us with immigration, homeland security, and stop identify theft. Come on. These REAL IDs won't be available for another 7 or 8 years. Come on. There is no REAL ID. So they're telling the states that you're going to have to take your first step toward these IDs and the first step is to send us a letter to say that you're going to accept our provisions sometime in the future when we figure out what they're going to be.

Interviewer: Do you understand the national security concerns here? [etc.]

Schweitzer: Almost all those hijackers on 9/11 would have qualified to have a Real ID. This is the way the system works. You walk into a drivers license bureau somewhere and present them with a birth certificate. The problem is we don't have a standardized process of birth certificates across this country. You give me a half a dozen high school students and a Kinko’s, and I’ll show you a bunch of birth certificates that looks very, very real.

[...]

Schweitzer: So that everyone understands, the Montana legislature passed a bill that instructs the Governor and the Attorney General not to implement any provisions of the Real ID [Act]. And this is the only thing that I know of that has united the farthest Left to the farthest Right in Montana politics.

There was not one dissenting vote out of 150 legislators. They simply said that they were fed up with the federal government coming up with kooky IDs that do not make us any more secure. This is the federal government telling a state you must do something and you must pay for it. Well, thanks for playing. Montana's not in.

[...]

Interviewer: Well Governor Schweitzer, what happens in May [Real ID Act “deadline” for state announcing intent to comply] if somebody from your state wants to get on a commercial flight?

Schweitzer: They’re gonna show them their Montana driver’s license and they’re gonna get on that commercial flight and nothing’s gonna happen.

Interviewer: But that’s supposed to be the deadline.

Schweitzer: Blah, blah, blah, “supposed to be the deadline.” There’s nothing in the Constitution that tells Homeland Security that they’re supposed to do this or they must do this. In fact there isn't even any actions by Congress that says this is the specific letter you must have. This is another bluff by some bureaucrats in Washington DC and thank God we live a long ways from Washington DC.

Interviewer: Well, Governor Schweitzer, it's great to talk to you.

My hat tips to BoingBoing and Blacknell for having partial transcripts that I built on.

# posted by leifw @ 9:03 PM 2 comments

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

# posted by leifw @ 10:13 PM 0 comments

If there is anthropogenic global warming but we continue in our current energy consumption patterns, we continue to enrich petro-states and lead our economy teetering toward an economic precipice of short supply, high priced oil. If there is no anthropogenic global warming but we switch to carbon neutral energy sources, then we become more economically stable and self sufficient while paying ourselves to develop new energy infrastructure.

It looks like the arguments against the idea run along the lines of:

• This proves that environmentalism is a religion.
• This is yet another convenient excuse for the government to take your money and liberty.
• The cost of switching energy infrastructure is too high given the possibility that it's unnecessary.
• It overstates the current damage and understates the ability of future technology to reverse that damage. Pascal's wager works because the costs of modifying a finite life are always overwhelmed by the possibility (regardless of likelihood) of eternal damnation. The environmental argument doesn't work because the risk-reward ratio is nearer parity.

I think my statement differs from the normal formulation because it intertwines the political aspect. Our current course has resulted in a trade imbalance and a reliance on countries with which we often find ourselves at odds.

What do you think?

# posted by leifw @ 2:38 PM 1 comments

“I love the Montana style of holding this at a bar with cheap beer.”

On a slight unrelated note, Montanans spend the most per capita at bars. Amazingly, the average spending is nearly 5 times the national average. Combined with Montana's bar prices tending to be lower than elsewhere, well, that's a lot of drinking.

# posted by leifw @ 8:25 AM 1 comments

60 million is one percent of the world's 6 billion people. Mensa members are required to be in the top two percent of intelligence. To say that you're one of the smartest 60 million is to say that you're not just eligible, but you'd be one of the smarter members.

I mention this not to put anyone down, but just to give scale to the gigantic numbers.

# posted by leifw @ 10:45 PM 0 comments

With this in mind Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank to make very small loans to the poor. The initial round of loans averaged around $0.50 apiece. His position was that the least qualified should be given priority for loans. A woman who claimed she didn't know how to handle money because she'd never even touched it was their prime loan candidate, according to Yunus. The bank has grown to 2,100 branches, nearly 25,000 employees, and 7.4 million borrowers. For his trouble Yunus and the bank were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006.

My favorite anecdote from listening to the podcast of Yunus' address to the Commonwealth Club involved his work with Dannon. The giant yogurt company wanted to work with him to produce an inexpensive, nutritional-supplement yogurt. He said they needed to find a way to package the yogurt that was biodegradable, instead of using plastic. Dannon searched far and wide and returned with plans to use a corn starch substance for the container. Yunus asked if the container could be eaten. They said no. He said it was no good to sell the poor something they couldn't eat. "When I buy ice cream, I can eat the package it comes in," he said.

# posted by leifw @ 10:13 PM 1 comments

These inclue:

• inmy
• inmyopinion
• inmyhumbleopinion
• imho
• justmyopinion
• justmyhumbleopinion
• jmho
• youropinionplease

Many of these have no posts. Do you suppose this sample is reflective of the overall rate of abandonment at blogspot or is starting a blog explicitly about one's opinions a recipe for having none?

# posted by leifw @ 10:40 PM 1 comments

On the Republican ballot in South Carolina, the media declares it a close contest with McCain garnering 33% of the vote and Huckabee 30%. However, on the metric that actually matters, convention delegates, McCain got 19 delegates and Huckabee only 5. What appears at first to be a 10% difference is nearly a 300% difference.

Yes, it's easy to snipe at the media. Yes, I'm going to do it anyway.

Journalists: lazily reporting elections for at least half a century.

# posted by leifw @ 9:55 PM 1 comments

"We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

# posted by leifw @ 12:50 PM 0 comments

We stayed home on Christmas and the following day.

By the 27th, we needed to go out for groceries. It was basically 10 miles to the store we needed to go to. No problem: the math says that we should have another 35 miles on that tank of gas. We headed out on the interstate and a few miles in ran out of gas, which was a first for me in any vehicle.

The 2004-2008 Prius has a bladder in its fuel tank to reduce evaporative fuel loss. In cold weather, it's reported to allow less than a full 10-gallon fill.

Thankfully, one of our friends was just returning from the store. We called them when they were about 2 miles from us headed the other direction on the interstate. I ran across traffic, jumped in with them, got a ride home, grabbed the lawn mower's gas can, and drove our other car off to the rescue.

To my wife's enduring credit, she did not make fun of me and my misplaced faith in math. All of her laughter was directed at the irony of situation. Moments before the car dropped out of cruise control and started flashing lights at us, I had said, "I'm pretty sure there's one more notch to go on the gas gauge."

I'm extremely thankful that we ran out when we did. Had we run out a few miles earlier, we would've been stranded on the interstate on very nasty roads on Christmas Eve. She may not have been so kind.

# posted by leifw @ 10:17 AM 1 comments

The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.

The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.

Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its "backyard".

# posted by leifw @ 1:52 PM 1 comments

Of course the shot was serendipity.

# posted by leifw @ 9:21 PM 0 comments

Imagine my shock then when I tried to log into NetBank about a month ago and was abruptly greeted by a notice that NetBank had been shut down by OTS. (Alright, so the title is misleading. It's not actually the FDIC that shuts down banks. They only provide the insurance. But then again, nobody knows who OTS is.) ING Direct was taking over the FDIC covered deposits. My money was suddenly frozen. I felt like a nasty third world dictator against whom the US decided to take tough action. Weird.

All turned out well. Of course, all of my money was covered under the $100,000 limit. I was liquid again in a few days. The freeze happened smack in the middle of my house, car, power, and credit card bills being due. All of them were paid without a hitch. It's really sort of remarkable. It's easy to think of government regulation being more trouble than it's worth. This was certainly a case where I was thankful for government regulation and the oversight it provided.

Apparently, I can now say that I'm a victim of the subprime lending crisis. NetBank's undoing was the result of "payment defaults on loans sold, weak underwriting, poor documentation, a lack of proper controls, and failed business strategies." Sure, it's a pain to find and set up a bank with checking services as good as NetBank's, but I sure am thankful I got back my lousy money.

# posted by leifw @ 2:39 PM 0 comments

We were oppressed by sleet today. Let me tell you, every one of those 5 millimeters hurt.

# posted by leifw @ 10:29 PM 3 comments

Give me deeper darkness. Money is not made in the light.

# posted by leifw @ 12:00 AM 0 comments

Perhaps you saw my post about the woes of Montana's 529 plan. Would you be willing to consider writing state officials to let them know how you feel?

Here's a sample letter that you can use.

Dear [State Official],

Montana has a 529 educational savings plan to help our families save for college. Unfortunately, a recent report by SavingForCollege.com found Montana's plan has the highest fees in the country. These fees add up in a major way, nearing $20,000 when saving enough for an MSU-Bozeman education. It's hard enough to save for our children's educations without being hindered by one of the most expensive plans in the country.

Please encourage the Board of Regents to investigate why their plan has the highest fees in the country.

Currently contributions to Montana's 529 plan are deductible from state taxes. Please also consider supporting legislation to extend that tax benefit to contributions to any 529.

Finally, please consider how we can keep the Board of Regents accountable in the future. Perhaps mandatory periodic reports comparing the fees and performance of Montana's plan to other plans are appropriate.

See http://montana529.info for more.

Thank you for considering this matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Your City, State ZIP]

To write to the governor, please use this form.

The email addresses of the regents are listed on this page.

To find email addresses for your state legislators, please use Project Vote Smart. On the left side of the page, you'll find a box to enter your zip code. Provided that they'll give contact information for your legislators and a bunch of other folks.

Thanks for thinking about writing. If you do, feel free to post a comment saying you did.

# posted by leifw @ 8:51 PM 0 comments

A 529 plan is a college savings account that has a number of tax advantages. Most significantly, earnings are untaxed if used for college education. In Montana, another benefit is that contributions to the state's plan are deductible from income taxes. Unfortunately, Montana's plan† suffers from fees so high as to more than offset the benefits.

A deduction against Montana income tax is worth at most 5.175%‡. The Montana plan charges a 5.5% fee* against each contribution, a larger percentage than the value of the deduction. Compare that to Vanguard's 529 plan which charges no sales fee. If you contributed $1,000 to each plan, the Vanguard plan would have a $1,000 balance, while the Montana plan would have a balance less than the original contribution, even if you also contributed your tax deduction. Sadly, the state is offering a tax break to encourage families to act against their best interest.

The Montana plan is also a bum deal in subsequent years. Mutual funds make money by charging a percentage of an account's balance each year. This percentage is called the fund's expense ratio. The funds in Montana's plan have ratios ranging from 1.18% to 1.44%*. The funds in Vanguard's plan have ratios ranging from 0.5% to 0.7%, less than half that of Montana's funds.

To flesh out this comparison, I've published a spreadsheet comparing the growth of a moderate risk fund from each plan. Despite the income tax deduction advantage Montana's plan enjoys, it has a lower balance in every year compared to the Vanguard plan. By the child's 18th birthday, Montana's plan has fallen nearly $20,000 behind. The difference is entirely due to the plan's excessively high fees. For each 1% of Montana's population that uses the Montana-529 plan, an out-of-state corporation earns nearly one million dollars in unnecessarily high fees.

Should we feel some fealty toward the plan because it is Montana's? Absolutely not. The plan is operated by a California company with no offices in Montana. The state's government has essentially licensed Montana's good name to this company in exchange for a bad deal for its citizens.

I'm not the only one who's noticed the deficiencies of Montana's 529 plan. SavingForCollege.com published a report showing that Montana's plan had the highest fees in the country, fees that were usually double, if not triple, those of other states' plans. Arizona dropped Pacific Life's plan last year in favor of plans with lower fees. Montana is now the only state using that company's funds. SmartMoney singled out Montana's plan for having high fees. Morningstar also mentions the plan's high fees and that parents of relatively young children are better off going to another plan.

Clearly something should be done. I propose three changes.

1. Montana should either find a new 529 plan with lower fees or should require Pacific Life to lower its sales load and expense ratios. We should fix what's broken.
2. Montana should offer an income tax deduction for contributions to any 529 plan, not just the state's own. We should not use tax breaks to entice Montanans to settle for a bad deal. We should reward Montanans for saving for college even if our plan remains uncompetitive and they're forced to look elsewhere.
3. We should prevent Montana from slipping into this situation again. The legislature should order periodic reports of the competitiveness of our 529. The Board of Regents, the government body responsible for the plan, has been negligent. Which of the Regents knows that their fund has the highest fees in the county? Hopefully, periodically shining a light on this dark, dusty corner of its duties will make the Board more mindful.

Footnotes:

† There are actually two 529 plans offered by Montana. The plan I'll refer to throughout is the Pacific Life plan. The other plan is offered by College Savings Bank. That plan only offers stable-value investments, such as CDs. These investments yield less than the rate of college inflation. An investment in these options is essentially a money losing venture, as the purchasing power of the funds will be less at the time they're needed than at the time they were invested. Consequently, I consider plans like Pacific Life's, which invest in stocks and bonds, which can achieve average returns above the roughly 6% college inflation rate, the only option. Within the Pacific Life plan, three classes of shares can be purchased. I'm only considering the class A shares, as they're the best long term investment.

‡ The highest personal income tax rate in Montana is 6.9%. Any amount deducted from state taxes is taxed by the federal government. If a taxpayer qualifies for the 6.9% Montana bracket, then he will pay at least 25% in federal taxes. The net value of the state tax deduction is calculated by: (deductible amount) * (state rate) * (1-federal rate), or 6.9% * 75% = 5.175%. See this tax deduction calculator for a better explanation.

* Please see the Pacific Life 529 Prospectus pages 21 through 23.

# posted by leifw @ 8:53 PM 0 comments

• The strangest disaster of the 20th century. Absolutely fascinating.
• Winning entries from a recent optical illusion contest. The gradients and the twin towers of Pisa are my favorites.
• What do you get when you cross a bike with a tree?
• High school students who fail standardized tests aren't allowed to graduate. They picket. Carefully read the sign one carries. Weep.

# posted by leifw @ 1:28 PM 0 comments

Exhibit A: The Utah GOP recently debated whether Satan was behind illegal immigration. Turns out there was support for causation, there just wasn't a quorum.

Exhibit B: A man driving a dark red car had his license plate revoked. It read "merlot."

Exhibit C: A while back Utah created the equivalent of a do-not-call registry for children's email addresses. Other entities, including the FCC, have considered and rejected such proposals as being untenable and ineffective. Undeterred, Utah created the list, forecasting that they'd generate millions of dollars in revenue. Instead, they've reported a net loss.

Exhibit D: So you want to sell a used CD in Utah (or Florida)? I'm going to need to see some ID. And get some finger prints. Oh, and you'll have to endure a waiting period. You'll never believe that the record industry, which has seen declining sales recently, would lobby for legislation to make it more inconvenient to sell used CDs.

# posted by leifw @ 9:46 PM 1 comments

My only complaint about my Roomba is that it won't clean the rug in the center of our living room, which it detects as a drop off due to its dark color.

# posted by leifw @ 9:37 PM 2 comments

In the show's outtakes, which played as the credits rolled, the following exchange played out:

Rowe: I have a stupid question.

Snake Lady: There are no stupid questions.

Rowe: I have a book of stupid questions.

Snake Lady: (Sweetly.) What's that: your diary?

Ouch.

# posted by leifw @ 9:57 PM 1 comments

unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.

I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

Cattle die, kindred die,
Every man is mortal:
But the good name never dies
Of one who has done well.

# posted by leifw @ 8:16 PM 1 comments

Name a well-known American city, with 12 letters in its name, containing the letters of THANKS in left to right order, not necessarily consecutively. A hint: This is a city of more than 100,000 people.

1. Find a list of US cities with at least 100,000 residents
2. Paste that list into vi
3. Search for the regular expression /t.*h.*a.*n.*k.*s/
4. Submit answer

# posted by leifw @ 3:20 PM 2 comments

I'm a moderate, and there is no room left in the Republican Party for moderates. I'm not leaving the Republican Party; it has basically left me.

# posted by leifw @ 1:31 PM 0 comments

• Chad Vader: Day/Night Shift Manager. These shorts chronicle the comic tales of Darth Vader's hapless cousin. Chad begins as the day shift manager at Empire Grocery, but is demoted to working the night shift, separating him from his heartthrob. Despondent at losing her and his former position to his nemesis, Lord Vader struggles to find the will to go on. These episodes are worth watching simply for title montage in which the dark lord plucks an apple from a produce display with his force powers while a morose acoustic guitar lethargically thrums the Imperial March.
• My Country, My Country. When I learned of this documentary about Iraq in the 6 months prior to the January 2005 election, I assumed that it would make a compelling case against the US's involvement. I was wrong. The film is a series of poignant scenes, such as a mother and grandmother encouraging a daughter to swat a fly, surreally immune to the ambient pounding of gunfire and mortars. The candidacy and home life of a Baghdad doctor tie together these scenes. Following Doctor Riyadh allows the viewer to see a rich cross section of the Iraq capital's life from the abduction for ransom of a fellow physician's son to supporting emotionally and financially a woman whose husband only leaves the house to consort with Muqtada al-Sadr and even a trip to Abu Ghraib to evaluate prisoner health. The catch-22 of the America's position is subtly laid out: conditions are terrible for Iraqis and coalition troops and contractors, but clearly would be worse if the government fell. While I offer kudos to PBS for airing this work, I must admit this show is not for everyone: Elizabeth fell asleep watching.

  On an entirely separate level, the film is fascinating because its creator has been placed on the terrorist watch list with the highest possible threat rating. According to Laura Poitras:

  Since finishing My Country, My Country, I've been placed on the Department of Homeland Security's terror watch list. Returning to the U.S. in August 2006 after screenings in Europe, I was detained at two airports. In Vienna, I was escorted out of the terminal to a police inspection area and was notified by security that my 'threat rating' was 400 points — the highest the Department of Homeland Security assigns. Upon arrival at JFK airport, I was again escorted by security to a holding area until Homeland Security gave permission for me to enter the country.

# posted by leifw @ 11:43 PM 1 comments

The ("Nerdy") video has gotten a lot of attention, and the proliferation of places like YouTube (has) been a big help.

I'd kind of written off the chance of ever having another hit single, since record labels weren't really releasing commercial ones. As much as people are griping about the Internet taking sales away from artists, it's been a huge promotional tool for me.

# posted by leifw @ 8:36 PM 0 comments

From Ursi's Blog

# posted by leifw @ 9:14 PM 2 comments

If you're looking for the next foreclosure, follow the Hummer. A lot of these Hummers were paid for out of equity lines and refinances -- and the Lexuses and the Mercedes.

Their income maybe was never enough to afford the loans, and their adjustable-rate mortgages are kicking in, and there's going to be some blood flowing in the streets.

# posted by leifw @ 8:09 PM 0 comments

I tell this "back in my day, uphill both ways" story only because I think it's wonderful that roughly 12 years later hard drive storage can be purchased at about $0.25 per GB, according to recent postings on SlickDeals. That's a 10,000 times increase in value compared to the price the local shop offered years ago, an annualized improvement of about 115%. Of course, those numbers are at least as suspect as my "through two feet of snow, barefoot" memory.

# posted by leifw @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

• I wanted the CC.NET project which built the code and the FxCop project to break separately.
• I wanted the violated FxCop rules to appear on CC.NET dashboard.
• I didn't want the FxCop to checkout from version control or build the code.

• The official page on FxCop/CC.NET integration.
• John Rayner's posts on CC.NET, especially Getting FxCop to break the build

The steps for my msbuild script are:

• Copy the files to be analyzed, including assemblies they depend on to a temporary folder.
• Run FxCop on the assemblies in question.
• Check the FxCop result and return an appropriate error code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="RunCheck" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <!-- Required Import to use MSBuild Community Tasks -->
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

  <Target Name="RunCheck">
    <CallTarget Targets="Copy" />
    <CallTarget Targets="Check" />
    <CallTarget Targets="Report" />
  </Target>

  <Target Name="RunFxCopUI">
    <CallTarget Targets="Copy" />
    <Exec Command="attrib +R $(FxCopProject)" />
    <Exec Command='"$(FxCopExe)" $(FxCopProject)'/>
  </Target>

  <Target Name="Copy">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(DllsAndPdbs)" DestinationFolder="$(FxCopWorkDirectory)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true"/>
  </Target>

  <Target Name="Check">
    <Exec Command='"$(FxCopCmdExe)" /project:$(FxCopProject) /out:$(FxCopOutput) /directory:$(FxCopWorkDirectory) /forceoutput' />
  </Target>

  <Target Name="Report">
    <XmlRead ContinueOnError="True" XmlFileName="$(FxCopOutput)" XPath="string(count(//Issue[@Level='CriticalError']))">
      <Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="FxCopCriticalErrors" />
    </XmlRead>
    <XmlRead ContinueOnError="True" XmlFileName="$(FxCopOutput)" XPath="string(count(//Issue[@Level='Error']))">
      <Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="FxCopErrors" />
    </XmlRead>
    <XmlRead ContinueOnError="True" XmlFileName="$(FxCopOutput)" XPath="string(count(//Issue[@Level='CriticalWarning']))">
      <Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="FxCopCriticalWarnings" />
    </XmlRead>
    <XmlRead ContinueOnError="True" XmlFileName="$(FxCopOutput)" XPath="string(count(//Issue[@Level='Warning']))">
      <Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="FxCopWarnings" />
    </XmlRead>

    <Math.Add Numbers="$(FxCopCriticalErrors);$(FxCopErrors);$(FxCopCriticalWarnings);$(FxCopWarnings)">
      <Output TaskParameter="Result" PropertyName="FxCopRuleViolations" />
    </Math.Add>

    <Error Text="FxCop encountered $(FxCopRuleViolations) rule violation(s). Critical errors: $(FxCopCriticalErrors). Errors: $(FxCopErrors). Critical warnings: $(FxCopCriticalWarnings). Warnings: $(FxCopWarnings)."
 Condition="$(FxCopRuleViolations) &gt; 0" />
  </Target>

  <ItemGroup>
    <DllsAndPdbs Include="..\..\..\ThirdParty\lib\*.dll;bin\debug\*.dll;bin\debug\*.pdb;"/>
  </ItemGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <FxCopWorkDirectory>FxCop</FxCopWorkDirectory>
    <FxCopProject>ProjectName.FxCop</FxCopProject>
    <FxCopOutput>$(FxCopWorkDirectory)\ProjectName.FxCop.output.xml</FxCopOutput>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <OutputFiles Include="FxCop\*.dll;FxCop\*.pdb" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <FxCopCriticalErrors>0</FxCopCriticalErrors>
    <FxCopErrors>0</FxCopErrors>
    <FxCopCriticalWarnings>0</FxCopCriticalWarnings>
    <FxCopWarnings>0</FxCopWarnings>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <ExpectedFxCopCmdPath>C:\Program Files\Microsoft FxCop 1.35\FxCopCmd.exe</ExpectedFxCopCmdPath>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Choose>
    <When Condition="Exists($(ExpectedFxCopCmdPath))">
      <!-- Hope that the expected version of FxCop is installed -->
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FxCopCmdExe>$(ExpectedFxCopCmdPath)</FxCopCmdExe>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </When>
    <Otherwise>
      <!-- Otherwise hope that FxCop is in the path. -->
      <PropertyGroup>
        <FxCopCmdExe>fxcopcmd.exe</FxCopCmdExe>
      </PropertyGroup>
    </Otherwise>
  </Choose>
</Project>

That leaves only the question of how to cause the FxCop CC.NET project to run after the main project completes successfully.  CC.NET includes a <projectTrigger>, which is perfect for this task.  Not only is the project trigger able to run the dependent project only when the parent project completes successfully, but it also is smart enough not to run the dependent project multiple times if the parent project completes while the child is still running.  Here's my ccnet.config:

<cruisecontrol>
  <project name="FxCop">
    <publishExceptions>true</publishExceptions>
    <triggers>
      <projectTrigger project="ParentProject">
        <triggerStatus>Success</triggerStatus>
      </projectTrigger>
    </triggers>
    <tasks>
      <msbuild>
        <timeout>1800</timeout>
        <executable>C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\msbuild.exe</executable>
        <projectFile>ProjectFile.Fxcop.msbuild.xml</projectFile>
        <buildArgs>/noconsolelogger /v:diag</buildArgs>
        <logger>ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MsBuild.XmlLogger,ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MsBuild.dll</logger>
      </msbuild>
    </tasks>
    <publishers>
      <merge>
        <files> <file>FxCop\ProjectName.FxCop.output.xml</file> </files>
      </merge>
      <xmllogger />
    </publishers>
  </project>
</cruisecontrol>

# posted by leifw @ 8:34 PM 1 comments

• Montana's Democratic governor excitedly announced that a coal gasification plant will be built near Roundup. This old, but new again, technology will purportedly be significantly cleaner than typical coal power plants and will produce synthetic diesel as a byproduct. I thought it was particularly interesting that the Governor said that the state offered the proposed plant's owners no incentives; compare that to the FutureGen project, which while being more advanced, will cost the federal government $0.6 billion.
• Dress your dog as Darth Vader, Yoda, or Leia for Halloween.
  Yes, it is a little freaky that those costumes' models are taxidermic.
  Via neatorama.

# posted by leifw @ 11:20 PM 1 comments

HM QE II: Have we shown you how to start a nuclear war, yet?
Tony Blair: Ah, no.
HM QE II: Oh, first thing we do appearantly...
Tony Blair: You obviously know my job better than I do.
HM QE II: Yes. Well, you are my tenth Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. My first, of course, was Winston Churchill.

Mondello: How's that for putting a man in his place?

# posted by leifw @ 1:34 PM 0 comments

If [Sen. Burns] and a very few others are defeated, the Democrats will, of course, control the Senate... This will put great power in the hands of people who will, judging from past performance, use their positions to do all they can to destroy what remains of our constitutional republic.

Could this be our last chance to save our freedoms? The guns, for example, will come under heavy assault; and if the guns go, so will our remaining freedoms.

We had better re-elect Conrad Burns and, at least, help delay the disaster that would be inevitable otherwise. We could, at least, hope in the meantime for a God-given miracle, giving us a reprieve from the downfall of our once great and wonderful nation.

# posted by leifw @ 9:27 PM 0 comments

• Praise from Daily Kos, one of liberal blogs with the largest audience.
• Condemnation from former Homeland Security chief, Tom Ridge.

# posted by leifw @ 9:00 AM 0 comments

Nararator: In an alterate universe, the events of 1774 happen instead in 2004...

Ted Koppel: The British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts today. The acts streamline government and give the king's troops the tools they need to root out terrorists. Benjamin Franklin said that those who surrender their liberties to gain a little safety deserve neither. Tories in Parliament responded by asking why "Liberals like Franklin hate the Americas."

# posted by leifw @ 8:52 AM 0 comments

I used to be skeptical of global warming, but now I'm absolutely convinced that the world is spiraling out of control. CO2 is like a bushfire that gets bigger and bigger every year.

# posted by leifw @ 1:26 PM 0 comments

The Cursor class does not support animated cursors (.ani files) or cursors with colors other than black and white.

1. Add the .cur to the project's resources using the Visual Studio 2005 resource designer by using the the "Add existing file" toolbar item. I'm going to assume that you named the resource "hand2."
2. Add a P/Invoke declaration for LoadCursorFromFile.

   [DllImport("user32.dll")]
   static extern IntPtr LoadCursorFromFile(string lpFileName);
   

3. At runtime, copy the cursor resource to a temporary file, ask the Win32 API to load that file as a cursor, and create .NET Cursor object from the Win32 handle.

   private Cursor LoadColorHandCursor()
   {
       string path = Path.GetTempFileName();
       File.WriteAllBytes(path, Properties.Resources.hand2);
       Cursor hand = new Cursor(LoadCursorFromFile(path));
       File.Delete(path);
       return hand;
   }
   

Here's a working code example.

# posted by leifw @ 1:15 PM 5 comments

• The US has been reluctant to build liquified natural gas receiving facilities, restricting the import of NG, and increasing demand for oil for energy generation.
• Nigeria, which ranks with Kuwait as an oil exporter, has enormous internal strife, which is beginning to drive out the foreign oil companies.
• Venezuela and Iran, the number five and four oil exporters, are posturing to make the US feel insecure about its oil supply.
• Ethanol could help moderate gas prices, but the US has a $0.54/gallon tariff, which prevents importing otherwise plentiful and cheap supplies.
• With gas prices above $3/gallon, demand is not slackening. Folks are cutting other budget items, rather than driving less.

# posted by leifw @ 9:27 PM 0 comments

Upon arriving near present day, Livingston, Montana, Clark remarked on

• "those Snowey Mountains to the N W"
• "a high rugid mountain covered with Snow"
• "mountains to the S. S. E on the East side of the river is rocky rugid and on them are great quantities of Snow"
• "a high rugid Mtn. on which is Snow bearing North 15 or 20 miles"

1. 1806 was an unusually cold and snowy year.
2. 2003-2006 have been notably warmer and/or drier than 1806.

My guess is for the latter.

# posted by leifw @ 11:29 PM 0 comments

Your caboose is looking really good!

# posted by leifw @ 1:17 AM 0 comments

You know, ...you've got to give him credit because earlier in the week, President Bush quietly sneaked into Iraq. Well, here's an idea: why don't we quietly sneak out of Iraq?"

# posted by leifw @ 11:17 PM 0 comments

Free Llama Wool

You shear

# posted by leifw @ 10:10 PM 1 comments

What nerds like is the kind of town where people walk around smiling. This excludes LA, where no one walks at all, and also New York, where people walk, but not smiling. When I was in grad school in Boston, a friend came to visit from New York. On the subway back from the airport she asked "Why is everyone smiling?" I looked and they weren't smiling. They just looked like they were compared to the facial expressions she was used to.

# posted by leifw @ 12:55 PM 0 comments

I'm often in favor of market driven solutions rather than regulation. However, I think that the Internet needs to be neutral in order to remain "The Internet". The very purpose of the Internet was to connect disparate networks. Allowing network providers to charge either side of the connection for access to a specific outside network breaks the spirit and nature of the Internet. Allowing a network provider to intentionally degrade or "not favor" a connection between two end points puts ISPs in the position of censor. Please vote for enforceable network neutrality. Montana needs network neutrality more than most places because of our low population density. Many Montanans do not and will not have a choice of multiple providers; consequently, many of us will not have the option of using another service provider if ours degrades or blocks access to a much used site or service.

# posted by leifw @ 1:32 PM 0 comments

Developing the consequences of their mathematical model, Edlund and Korn argue that the primary reason for the income differential is not the risk sometimes associated with the practice of prostitution but rather that prostitutes greatly diminish their chances for marriage by virtue of their occupation.

# posted by leifw @ 9:27 PM 2 comments

• I had heard of the notion, but I didn't realize that the Hygiene Hypothesis was a respected enough idea to have a fancy medical name.
• I bought a pair of Altec Lansing AHP712i Headphones with Active Noise Reduction headphones a month and a half ago and have been very pleased with both the noise reduction and sound quality. They're great for office work, running, or lawn mowing and have better bass response than any other headphone I've tried. At $28, they're $12 cheaper than I paid. My biggest complaint is that noise reduction system introduces a fair amount of hiss; fortunately, I can't notice it after about two minutes.
• A senior official in the Department of Homeland Security is proposing a global ID system to expedite travel and to inhibit terrorists.
• Republican senators recently proposed a $100 gas rebate for the vast majority of American tax payers. I thought the idea was asinine. How can the government rebate us for something we didn't buy from them? Moreover, what happened to those open-market, free-trade Republicans? It's nice to see that 86% of respondents at CNN.com thought the idea was silly, too.
• A little back-of-the-envelope math estimates that there are 150,000,000 eligible tax payers potentially receiving $100, for a cost, before administrative overhead, of $15,000,000,000. If the government took all of the profits that Chevron, ExxonMobile, and Marathon have reported this quarter, they'd still need to come up with a few billion to cover that bill. But what's a few billion?

# posted by leifw @ 11:55 PM 0 comments

1. It's wrong because it ignores that the Republicans began as a third party at a time when the two-party system was well entrenched. The rise of a third party simply required a powerful issue that was untenable for one of the existing parties.
2. It's wrong because a fair portion of folks vote based on party labels regardless of the candidate. More importantly, most voters couldn't tell you how the incumbent in their district voted on specific issues. So if folks are voting based on the individual, they're doing so based on an individual's charisma, not on his stance on issues, or his party label.
3. The two party system is dangerous because it puts so much power in the hands of the redistricters. Lines simply need to be drawn just so to give one party a slim advantage in some districts while giving the other party enormous advantage in other districts to diminish the effectiveness of the minority vote. In a multi-party system, electing representatives by party at-large in large states would better express minority opinions and would limit the meaningfulness of redistricting. Recall that DeLay's major accomplishment was to redistrict Texas in order to give Republicans a larger share of the state's seats, leading to a majority in the House.

# posted by leifw @ 1:03 PM 5 comments

While listening to When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, an apocalyptic tale in which primarily only those sheltered in data centers survive, I laughed out loud, a dangerous proposition when running on a treadmill as I was, upon hearing the following exchange between two star-crossed sysadmins.

I've got a 486 downstairs with over five years of uptime. It's going to break my heart to reboot it.

What the everlasting s--- do you use a 486 for?

Nothing. But who shuts down a machine with five years uptime? That's like euthanizing your grandmother.

# posted by leifw @ 8:03 AM 1 comments

Maybe I should buy a shredder.

# posted by leifw @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

Course workers pulled an all-nighter to prepare the Giant Slalom course for yesterday's race, trying to get rid of all the powder and scrape it down to that bulletproof ice that only a ski racer could love.

# posted by leifw @ 12:15 AM 0 comments