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September 03

Mercedes-Benz GL320 BlueTec: I lost the chance to buy an SUV that I couldn't afford

The Mercedes-Benz GL320 BlueTec is a 7-passenger luxury SUV that runs on diesel. The cool thing is that its fuel economy never drops below low 20's (and can be high-20's for highway). Plus it has monstrous torque.

In August 2009, Mercedes-Benz was offering a $10,000 dealer incentive to clear out the 2009 model. In addition, through the Fleet Employee Program (FEP) that Microsoft is part of, there was an additional $2000 discount for any GL model. Meaning, after you negotiate your best offer with a M-B dealer, show your FEP paperwork, and M-B will add the discount.

With the GL320 going for slightly below invoice, that meant:

•    MSRP: $58,200
•    Invoice: $54,126
•    M-B Incentive: -$10,000
•    FEP: -$2000

The base GL320 could be had for about $42,000. That's $12,000 below invoice. That was such an incredible price. There weren't any GL320's for us even to test drive at our local M-B dealer. But alas...I didn't have the $$$ to buy it. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever see a deal like that again.

Update: FEP is now at $1000, and there appears to be about a $4000 incentive going on. But it's hard to swallow that knowing what could be had...

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October 17

How to cut in line and almost get away with it...

On 10/15/2008 we went to the California Academy of Sciences. It was a free day (regular admission is $24.95), and the crowd was huge! It opened at 9:30; we got there at 10:30 and waited in line. We are Chinese, and this Chinese lady snuck in right behind us and sat down on the concrete seating area where we were waiting. My wife asked her to not cut in line, but the lady ignored all conversation. By the time I notified the security personnel, the line had moved some more, and the lady was still sitting there.

I asked her if she cut in line. She said her leg was hurting; she needed to sit down; her party was farther back; and she was waiting for them to catch up to her. Unfortunately for her, the rest of her family arrived, presumably to cut in line. An argument ensued; they started getting indignant and self-righteous; they accused me and my wife of shouting at them, they told me to mind my own business, etc. But by that time, they were arguing with the security guy (who knew exactly what was going on). The security guy asked the lady to sit further away out of the line until the rest of the...ahem...party made it up to where she was. By that time, there was quite a scene, and they all walked away angrily. The original lady hung around (under our watchful eye) and finally left. I'm sure they didn't get in back of line...by that time, it would've been at least a 2-hr wait. They got what they deserved.

Their ruse showed that they were obviously prepared for their line-cutting strategy. So I've distilled it into "Line-Cutting 101":

Requirements: need to be female and have exceedingly thick skin. [Reason: men may feel less inclined to confront a woman, ppl may not be inclined to get into women-women arguments]
Seek out a party of the same ethnicity waiting in line...not too close to the front. [Reason: others around you will think the line cutter is with the same ethnic party]
Discreetly come in behind the party and just sit down [Reason: see strategy #5,6]
If asked anything, ignore. Or speak/mumble in your own language. [Reason: don't interact and draw attention]
Wait for the line to move. [Reason: ppl may not care if somebody cuts behind them. Also, people further behind may not have seen what happened, and will assume that the lady was already ahead of them]
When a few groups of people have passed by, signal your party to cut in line. Ppl around my grumble, but they can plainly see that you were in line already.
When truly confronted:
1. Claim some physical ailment for sitting down
2. Claim your party is farther back, and you are waiting for them to catch up.
If your cover is blown:
1. Accuse other people of getting angry, raising their voice
2. Tell people to mind their own business
3. Accuse people of picking on your disability/ailment

Line cutting is all about "me first"...but when you combine that with self-righteousness and self-entitlement, then it really goes downhill.

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October 10

Why I hate VISA gift cards

Recently when I signed up for a new cellphone plan for myself and my wife, I got the cheapest phones and $50 rebate. The rebate came in the form of 2 $50 VISA check cards. It seemed easy enough to activate and use them. I'm sure like many people, I was expecting to be able to go to a restaurant and use these cards to offset the cost of a good meal. The card was declined (hm...maybe I didn't activate properly?). So I called the 800 number to talk to a representative. Here's why I hate VISA gift cards:

Legally, it isn't a gift card, so they can expire (In California, gift card expiry is illegal)
In a restaurant establishment, you can only charge 80% of the value of the card due to tip anticipation holdback.
At gas stations, you have to have the attendant charge exactly the amount you want before the gas purchase can be authorized.

If you get these, do what I did: hurry to Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Best Buy, or whatever shopping establishment and buy bona-fide gift cards. With in-store gift cards, you can easily charge the cards, easily check the balance, and split purchases across gift cards and regular payments. How inconvenient it would be to be limited to 80% of the card value or having to call a 800 number to check the balance so you know exactly how much you can spend, or having to spend it before a certain date? I'm sure all of these restrictions make it a lot harder to spend the exact amount.

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September 26

Latency in Ads Loading

Lately, I've gotten fed up with msnbc.com ads loading. I literally can't navigate to various pages because of some ad that's loading that doesn't return or takes a long time to load...this blocks the page critical render path. When I am able to navigate, the page is slow to load.

Just for experimentation purposes, I decided to trace the # of ads calls for one msnbc.com page: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20908040/. These are the ads/tracking calls that I can figure out.

http://ads1.msn.com/library/dap.js

http://c.live.com/c.gif?NC=1180&NA=1154&PS=73547&PI=7329&DI=305&TP=http%3a%2f%2fmsnbc.msn.com%2fid%2f20908040%2f&RedC=c.msn.com&MXFR=5F32F3A5A34B40E48EB2FDF5AF165D2A

http://c.msn.com/c.gif?NC=1180&NA=1154&PS=73547&PI=7329&DI=305&TP=http%3a%2f%2fmsnbc.msn.com%2fid%2f20908040%2f&MUID=1573C590AF614B208DA25D84307D4C64&ANON=A=0A698E2AA7E0013276472F74FFFFFFFF%26E=602%26W=3&NAP=V=1.6%26E=5a8%26C=4_Hja6rIhQfMuBvcJq_lttS3EyZFvtHPeA6ES3sHcBOcXk29ZVk2hA%26W=3http://msnbcom.112.2o7.net/b/ss/msnbcom/1/G.9-Pd-R/s92285868180372?[AQB]&ndh=1&t=24/8/2007%2022%3A57%3A41%201%20420&pageName=Story%7CBusiness%7CForbes.com%7C20908040%7CDocking%20the%20yacht%3A%20Cribs%20of%20billionaires%7C&g=http%3A//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20908040/&r=http%3A//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072/&ch=Business&c3=Matt%20Woolsey&c4=Business&c5=Forbes.com&c7=hmedium&c8=N&c15=20908040&c16=Story&c18=14&c26=Forbes&c39=ON&c41=1.5%7C60&s=1280x800&c=32&j=1.3&v=Y&k=Y&bw=1600&bh=756&ct=modem&hp=N&[AQE]

http://rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBC9DK&AP=1390

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N2992.MSN.com__/B2117819.12;abr=!ie;dcadv=1281487;sz=728x90;ord=589955861?

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N2992.MSN.com__/B2117819.12;dcadv=1281487;sz=728x90;ord=589955861?

http://m1.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js

http://m1.2mdn.net/1281487/indexing_costcalc_728x90_18k_032907.gif

http://a.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCLB1&AP=1071

http://b.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCNB1&AP=1071

http://rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCLB2&AP=1025

http://a.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCBB3&AP=1023

http://b.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCB01&AP=1025

http://rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBC2F2&AP=1025

http://a.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCTB1&AP=1025

http://b.ads1.msn.com/ads/11586/0000011586_000000000000000304421.gif

http://a.ads1.msn.com/ads/52962/0000052962_000000000000000317206.gif

http://ads1.msn.com/ads/309/0000000309_000000000000000432487.gif

http://a.ads1.msn.com/ads/3669/0000003669_000000000000000384164.gif

http://b.ads1.msn.com/ads/1/0000000001_000000000000000482644.jpg

http://ads1.msn.com/ads/1/0000000001_000000000000000430107.gif

http://global.msads.net/defaultads/ads/defaultads/1025.gif?C=P&E=10&N=F04

http://b.rad.msn.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetSAd=&DPJS=0&PG=NBCMSB&AP=1089

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4518.MSNREGULAR/B2478583.8;abr=!ie;sz=300x250;ord=405406142?

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N4518.MSNREGULAR/B2478583.8;sz=300x250;ord=405406142?

http://m1.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js

http://m1.2mdn.net/1522752/UTour_Best_300x250.jpg

http://context3.kanoodle.com/cgi-bin/context.cgi?id=78053631&db=context&query=*general_network&cgroup=biz&format=table&numresults=5&width=459&bordercolor=7788AA&fillcolor=FFFFFF&title=1&signup=1&newtarget=1&fontsize=10px

http://context3.kanoodle.com/cgi-bin/context.cgi?id=78053631&db=context&query=*general_network:premium&cgroup=d_businessforbes&format=sky&numresults=5&width=160&bordercolor=7788AA&fillcolor=FFFFFF&title=1&signup=1&newtarget=1&fontsize=10px&titlecolor=0000ff&linkcolor=0000ff

http://business.msnbc.us.intellitxt.com/intellitxt/front.asp?ipid=7540

http://business.msnbc.us.intellitxt.com/v3/door.jsp?ts=1190699864812&pagecl=7471&ias=5a415f643cfd47a8b70b6cb0db1a0f79&ipid=7540&refurl=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20908040/

http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/js/vm/func_200709182130.js

http://business.msnbc.us.intellitxt.com/al.asp?ipid=7540&di=4126929,4126928,3970782&syid=0,0,0&adid=201922,201922,201922&cc=us&rcc=us&hk=1&ts=20070925055745&so=0&mh=188c63522807304a86e08bb4603147c9&pvu=0254f4f8b19d4efa8839952a21155000&pvm=01a1d62cd407cbdb52df33fa3f13de3c&ias=5a415f643cfd47a8b70b6cb0db1a0f79

For...uh..."experimentation" purposes, I added the following domains to IE's restricted sites: (*.207.net, *.2mdn.net, *.advertising.com, *.atdmt.com, *.atwola.com, *.doubleclick.net, *.intellitxt.com, *.kanoodle.com, c.live.com, *.msads.net, *.ads1.msn.com, *.rad.msn.com, ads1.msn.com, c.msn.com, rad.msn.com, *.pointroll.com, *.revsci.net, *.llnwd.net, *.ugamsolutions.com, *.zedo.com). I am utterly amazed at the phenomenal improvement of the msnbc.com webUI experience (likewise, I was amazed that I put up with such a bad experience for so long). The site loads reliably and loads starkly faster than before...ads are now static images and load deferred, but at least they do not block the page from rendering. As an added bonus, the Flash-heavy ads are gone...and IE doesn't freeze anymore due to inerrant Flash ads.

June 29

Gotchas with System.Uri

System.Uri is a class that has several caveats with usage. Three methods deserve scrutiny:

Uri.ToString()
Uri.EscapeUriString()
Uri.AbsoluteUri

The first two functions should be banned from usage because they lead to several unintended behaviors. Demonstration: take a nice, pretty url like below. It has double-url-encoding to preserve the rru parameter (highlighted)

http://mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?=&rru=getmsg%3fcurmbox%3d00000000%252d0000%252d0000%252d0000%252d000000000001%26a%3dc7913ec40534cbf9582851359b6128a9404dbea8a6f7faec4d100a9f1499b1c5%26msg%3d9BC88EF5-0A29-4D7A-B0D3-5607DF3635C3%26start%3d0%26len%3d380290%26msgread%3d1&wa=wsignin1.0

Output of Uri.AbsoluteUri. This is correct.

http://mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?=&rru=getmsg?curmbox=00000000%252d0000%252d0000%252d0000%252d000000000001&a=c7913ec40534cbf9582851359b6128a9404dbea8a6f7faec4d100a9f1499b1c5&msg=9BC88EF5-0A29-4D7A-B0D3-5607DF3635C3&start=0&len=380290&msgread=1&wa=wsignin1.0

Output of Uri.ToString(). You'll notice that the double-url-encoding is removed (highlighted). This breaks the original encoded parameter; rru will no longer be parseable. You would think Uri.ToString() is safe, but no it isn't . Windows Live Mail had to take a hotfix because click thrus from Messenger, http://www.live.com, http://my.msn.com, and http://www.msn.com were broken.

Output of Uri.EscapeUriString(Uri.ToString()). This is just completely messed up. In addition to the url decoding, there is an additional encoding of % into %25 (highlighted)

http://mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?=&rru=getmsg?curmbox=00000000%25252d0000%25252d0000%25252d0000%25252d000000000001&a=c7913ec40534cbf9582851359b6128a9404dbea8a6f7faec4d100a9f1499b1c5&msg=9BC88EF5-0A29-4D7A-B0D3-5607DF3635C3&start=0&len=380290&msgread=1&wa=wsignin1.0

In conclusion, the method you really want to use is Uri.AbsoluteUri.

November 26

My Marvelous Discovery: "Marriage Entropy"

I've discovered that marriage is a life-long process of understanding and appropriately working through issues that have no resolution and problems that have no solution.

I've discovered that marriage is a life-long process of pouring in energy, effort, and determination to combat "Marriage Entropy"...basically the natural tendency (due to individuality, selfishness, sinful nature, etc.) to grow apart or walk the earth along parallel lines instead of closer together.

For those who would elevate marriage above singleness: both are different situations and represent different problem domains...and thus subjectively difficult to equate & quantify. They also should be mutually exclusive (if they're not...let's not go there).

I have now managed to combine a blog entry with two recurring topics crossing work and marriage: entropy and trading problems.

10:25 PM | Add a comment | Read comments (2) | Permalink | Blog it

November 06

Investment Strategies

This is my recommended order of retirement investment. It's what I follow. Comments welcome. The ordering is by precedence:

401K: Contribute percentage-wise up to your employer match. The match is free money.
Roth IRA: contribute $4000/year, $8000/year if you are married (you'll need to open two accounts, one for each spouse). If you are at or near the Roth cutoff, you should contribute to a traditional non-deductable IRA and recharacterize immediately as a Roth IRA. You can do this indefinitely (due to the Pension Relief Act of 2006, the Dec 31, 2010 deadline for recharacterization is eliminated, ensuring that anybody can create a tax-free income pool via Roth recharacterization.
401K: contribute up to the maximum amount ($15,000 for 2006) per spouse. If your company has a Roth 401K investment choice, choose that.
Everything else. That includes investment life insurance (eg VUL), regular savings, stock, etc. Remember that long-term capital gains are taxed at 15% max, making it a strategic choice.

Financially prudent investors know that the most tax-advantaged income streams ("tax diversification") are, in order of most preferrable to least preferrable:

tax-free income (eg Roth IRA, Roth 401K, real estate capital gains for your primary property that meet certain criteria)
tax-deferred income (eg 401K)
taxable income (eg regular income, capital gains taxes)

I'm a big believer in building the tax-free income pool. It's an enormous financial hit to save using after-tax dollars instead of pre-tax dollars, but I think it's worth it. You've already paid taxes on it; you never have to worry about it or taking the tax hit (real and psychological) when you withdraw money.

10:51 PM | Add a comment | Read comments (12) | Permalink | Blog it

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