the darkerside to rants

I am sure I am not the only one who, when looking at all the bank accounts and assets finds himself not being where they really want to be.

So, the only plan I have made to 2011 is to get where I want to be (and a few smaller things on the side as well, but this is the biggie).

In order to get there a plan was needed and here I am giving you an insight on how I plan on accomplishing this, maybe it will be useful to you as well.

1. Understand the Problem

Everything starts with an analysis. In this case you want to know where it is you actually spend the money.

For this I kept a log for a month, writing out any expenses that I have, so that included Rent (or Mortgage), Internet etc. all the fix costs are added up, then looked at. I found little I could cut, mainly because I already stripped my budget a few months ago.

I then looked at all the other expenses I had, that included food etc. But I was more interested in variable spending, that is, stuff I spent money on that wasn’t really all that useful. Seeing how much, for example, I had spent every month on eating out was a bit of an eye opener (though this is something I had already done earlier in the year as well and pared back accordingly).

Lastly, I set up a spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet I listed every single debt that I had. I brought out the whole amount, how much I paid off that month, and most importantly, how much I paid that month on interest.

So, any CC, Mortgage, LOC etc. that you have goes into this spreadsheet.

It tallies up the totals, how much outstanding debt (too much), how much I pay in interest every month (way too much) and then I added up how much I had paid off this month (not enough).

The reason for this is to show just how expensive debt is. I realized that over the last few months that only half of my payments went to serve the outstanding debt, the rest was interest payments. This number will go down as time progresses (and this part of the idea of keeping the spreadsheet) but for now it is a reminder just how stupid one can be by taking out a loan.

Also: Add up the amount of interest you pay and just imagine what you could be doing with all that money. Once the debt is gone, you will be able to use that money (interest alone!) to do nice things.

Motivated yet?

2. Make a Budget

Now that we have all of this sorted out and know how bad (or not so bad) we are off it’s time to make a budget and a plan.

The budget is rather easy, you take your fixed expenses, those you will not be able to par down much I would presume, though if you can, cut it down. Do you really still need Cable TV? I didn’t so it went out the window.

Make a budget for food, and also important, give yourself an entertainment budget. If you par it all down the odds are you will still be spending and then just be mad at yourself, plus, if you give yourself a budget and come in under you’re better of.

So my budget for entertainment beginning January is going to be $100 a mont. This does not include food, but it does include eating out.

Pay Cash

This is a biggie, and I am not the only one who had this idea: Stop paying with your Bank card or Credit Card. Why? Because it makes money less real. It’s just a number. Although you may see on your spreadsheet what you have just spent money, the reality is that it won’t sink in until later.

As such: give yourself a weekly money budget to spend, then carry this around as cash. Leave your CC and Bank Card at home and only take it with you when you know you need it (e.g. if you have to pay for a large item). Other than that, keep them in a drawer, the less temptation, the better.

Make a shopping list

If you sit down at home first, then write a list out of the things that you need you’re less likely to stray from it, this is also a cost control measure as you’re less likely to give in to impulse buys.

Make a payback plan

This is another biggie. I get paid once a month. The temptation is there to just make your debt payments right then and there. But, psychology, if you pay back more than once a month (say, every two weeks), you get a “benefit” out of it. you will see how your outstanding balance goes down twice and this is a very rewarding feeling.

I did put the spreadsheets etc. in place as of December, so I already had a “test run” and I can tell you to make the payment and then updating the spreadsheet is deeply satisfying. Pay back early, pay back often, see how you’re doing better.

Be Tax Smart

Oh, I am guilty of this. I never really bothered with writing stuff off. I spent the last month looking at all the things I could have written off but never did. Obviously you don’t want to do that yourself, you want to find yourself an accountant that can do the tax return for you. But in order to make this fast and less painful make sure you sort your invoices etc. I admit, I was very very bad at this too. I spent the last two months going through my “filing box” and shredded and filed a lot of paper. It was annoying and boring, there is a reason why I am not a bookkeeper or accountant, but if you want to take control of your finances you need to know where you are.

See the money you’re getting back from your tax return as a good way to pay back your debt even faster.

A good example of this is the MSP here in BC. I pay this myself and it is $57/month, which means I pay $684/year on the MSP. Rule of thumb is you get around 30% back on your tax return, so $205 just on that. Nice.

Likewise other things can be written off, get an accountant, talk with her or him and see what else you can write off.

This also means to try and max out any (income) tax shelter you may have, that is for example the RRSP here in Canada that you could and should max out if you can.

Savings

I admit it, I have a very very serious plan to be debt free, as such I have delayed / ignored any logic that would dictate to put money away. As I am single the risk is pretty slim but if you have family it may be a good idea to not be as aggressive on the payback as I am. For example, take your tax return and put it in a savings account, a Tax Free Savings account is a good idea (I will write about this a bit more in the next few days, but for now see it as this: As you already paid income tax on it, any profit you make in that account is yours to keep. While taking money out of the RRSP will incur income taxes (it is only deferred) anything you take out of the TFSA does not. So for a “rainy day” fund this is the better option.

Be aware though that there is a contribution limit of currently $5000/year, so you cannot save more than that in it, if you have more than a normal savings account will do as well.

Be Honest

This is the most important thing. Be honest to yourself about your financial situation. How much you own, how much you pay in interest and how long it would take you to pay it off at your current rate.

If you want to finance something new, calculate how much it is REALLY going to cost you, that is: How much will you pay on this item REALLY when you factor in all the interest you’re going to pay on it. This also leads into my final point:

Wants and Needs

This is probably the biggest. Advertising and peer pressure has turned many wants into needs. Learn the difference.

Crude example:

I NEED to eat and cloth and have Shelter.
I WANT that new iPhone / Computer / Game.

So, everything you currently spend money on is something you should examine based on this. Do you really need it? Or do you just want it? I mentioned above to make more than one debt repayment a month, the rational feeds straight into this. Reducing your debt has become a need, buying new stuff has become a want.

There is enough research that shows that if we go out and buy something we do get a “reward” in the brain, so a lot of the spending we are doing is based around this. Making these repayments is a way of getting the reward without causing any additional cost.

If you want, make debt payment every week, even if it is smaller amounts you pay back every time you will get the gratification of “buying” something and thus are less tempted to pay for other things that only get you deeper into debt.

Plan for the Future

Okay, it may take you a year or two to dig yourself out of that financial hole you’re in, but that should not prevent you from making plans for the future. This includes investments.

Do you have a pension at your job? If so, will it pay enough for you to live on? Where are your assets? (Note: If you have a Mortgage, you don’t own the house, so don’t count it as an asset it’s a liability until paid off, and even once it’s paid of you still have taxes and repairs to consider).

On how much could you survive? The rule of thumb is you should be paying no more than 1/3 of your income for shelter, how much will your house cost you once you’ve paid it off (taxes, repairs, utilities etc.). You get the idea.

Find yourself a good financial advisor once you’re done. Keep in mind: Diversification is the name of the game, don’t keep everything in one asset otherwise you’re badly exposed (this is also were the TFSA can come in).

Lastly a disclaimer: I am not a Financial Advisor, nor a Financial Professional. I have done a lot of reading about this over the last few years though and so far this plan works for me. I am also a single guy, I have no dependents and the only one I need to take into consideration when I make any financial decisions and the effects they have is me

Lastly, my longterm goal (two years out) is a simple one: I only want to need to have to work for six months out of the year, this does and has made an impact on how I live my life, but I am much more relaxed about this.

Life of course is unpredictable, so who knows what happens in the next twelve months, but the goal is that by the end of 2011 I will be in the situation that I am at the point where I only need to work nine months in 2012 if I so chose.

Your Turn.

детско обзавежданеI came late to the Call of Duty franchise. My first game was CoD Modern Warfare 2 last year which I quickly followed up by the first one int he series. Now of course, it’s Black Ops time.

I have to say the intriguing thing for me in the CoD series (at least the ones I have played) is mostly the cinematic quality. To be honest, CoD is more or less a rail shooter with some limited freedom. It is, for all intense and purpose a Jerry Bruckheimer summer blockbuster that you can play.

So what about Black Ops?

BACKGROUND

Call of Duty Black Ops is set in the 1960s. The Cold War is in full swing and a Russian General is trying to use a Nazi weapon to bring the US down. And you and your allies are in the midst of it all.

GAMEPLAY

If you have played any of the recent CoD offerings the playstyle should be familiar. At the core of it it is a railshooter with a Jerry Bruckheimer story. The story is interwoven and you do jump character. It is not a world exploration game but rather a story you get to discover for yourself, mostly by shooting people.

The controls are standard FPS fare, you can zoom in, you can shoot the enemy and you can make use of different weapons with a variety of attachments (e.g. a thermal scope). There won’t be any surprises for anybody who has played an FPS in the last decade, it’s all pretty straight forward.

GRAPHICS / PRESENTATION

I admit. I was quite taken with the visuals. The facial animations are so good that they used them during the “story telling” elements (read, when you don’t shoot people). That’s the good news. Unfortunately foilage (especially when hiding in it) still doesn’t look too good, At least on my XBOX the textures came off as flat and low-res. Does it distract? Not really, the game tries to keep you moving, it’s just when you decide to “do your own thing” and loiter around that you notice these things.

GRIEVANCES

Oh yes, there are things to complain about. No, it’s not the floating apple, it has mostly to do with the AI which at times (at least on normal difficulty) shows a remarkable amount of stupidity. Enemies standing in front of you not doing anything. Your own comrades wildly firing at a tango that has been down for a few seconds already, indicating to me that their actions are scripted and not really an AI thing per-se.

Then there is something that most players won’t really be bothered by: The voices of Robert MacNamara and JFK.

Yes yes, my history buff side is coming out but it just looks awfully wrong to me to hear these voices. Robert Picardo does a decent job of trying to copy Kennedy, but he is not Kennedy and it throws the entire thing out for me. Same thing for whoever voices MacNamara.

The latter one I have a really hard time to forgive, Macnamara is still alive, they could have tried to get him or done a better job in copying him.

CONCLUSION

Itching for a firefight? Want to be driven forward by the story? Don’t mind linear level progression? Get it.

Don’t like any of this? Then your SOL, most modern shooters follow this formula these days.

Rating: 7/10 (9/10 as an action movie)

I admit it. I loved the first game in the series. It was utterly cool to force grab a Stormtrooper or two and fling them off the walkway to their doom. In general, what made that game was the ability to wield the “awesome” powers that the jedi and Sith have.

So now in 2010 Lucasarts comes out with a sequel, trying to continue the story. But did they actually succeed?

I quickly jumpted back into the first game, also on the 360, to remind myself of what I liked about the old one. Then I quickly fired up the new one.

First perception? The graphics look much better than in the first one. More “lifelike” and in general more polished. The old Force powers are back and you are even given a handful of new ones (more about this later). The first ten minutes or so left me impressed with the desire to continue.

THE STORY

Now, not trying to spoil the story I can safely say it continues where the last game left off, nice to see that they found a (not completely stupid) way onward.

Having said this though, the story isn’t anything special. It does not “reveal” anything big and it merely tries to hit all the check marks along the way to a “Star Wars” ending. It does so though in style, with pretty explosions and well executed effects for the force powers.

THE GAMEPLAY

This is where the game has let me down quite a bit.

First and foremost I think the controls are horrible. They weren’t overly precise in the first game, but they are utterly horrible in the sequel. It turns down into button mashing and hoping you have enough Force power juice to take out that enemy.

In theory you should have a nice balance between your powers and your lightsaber skills. In reality though I mostly used push and light sabre combos when I encountered enemies that I couldn’t beat by using the Force.

Which brings me to the next, and much bigger problem. The difficulty curve on the game is harsh. From “easy” to “medium” (which they recommend as default) it is a huge step. What makes this even worse though is that the increase in difficulty mostly stems from more and tougher enemies, not from smarter Ai.

The AI in general is pretty crappy, they either swarm you or they stand aimlessly around occasionally taking a shot at you that can be easily deflected with the sabres. So most enemies really are just decoration for you to toss around. Fun for a while, but after a while it becomes boring and annoying.

In later levels it becomes so hard even on medium that I found myself ultimately lower the difficulty to “easy” and ending up just blasting through the game. I did not intend that, I actually ended up raising difficulty in between only to get my ass kicked. Now maybe it’s old age (I am not as young as I used to be) but I would say the problem in this game is balance.

VERDICT

Can I recommend the game? Yes and no. If you are good with frustration, can live with a small number of enemies and are willing to wildly button smash to get a story that is roughly on par with what George Lucas has punted out over the last two decades then by all means go for it.

If you just look for a fun way to toss Stormtroopers to their death you may be better off getting the old game or just wait until this game goes into the bargain bin.

Total rating: 5/10

I have not owned a notebook in almost three years. My last one was a Powerbook G4 bought in 2005 just before Apple dropped the PowerPC platform and went all Intel on us.

I kept using the Powerbook for a while longer, but it becamse clear quickly that Apple was doing their best to try and force people into the Intel fold ASAP. With 10.6 they effectivly have achieved it.

I did buy another Mac though, a new MacPro as I had done most editing / working from home anyway and the need for a portable computer didn’t seem that pressing.

Then Apple decided to turn all of the Notebooks into appliances, fusing the battery with the Computer, this killed it for me. If I am on a mobile computer I want to have the ability to swap out the Battery when need be, I am not a Hipster who uses his Computer to importantly type away at a coffeeshop pretending to be writing the next great Canadian Novel about the hardships of today’s 20something.

So I abstained.

Over the last few months though there were a few times where I could have really made good use of a mobile computer. As technology goes though, things are quickly progressing and as such I was holding out. The iPad looked interesting but suffered from the same "Apple disease" they seem to have acquired ever since the iPhone really became a hit, plus it is in essence an Internet Consumption device, not a mobile computing platform (and yes, I know a-many will disagree with me on that one).

Netbooks had fascinated me for a while, small, powerful and exciting. Only problem was, the ones I tried weren’t really powerful enough for me, main problem being memory, or rather lack thereof.

On the weekend though I finally bit and bouth a Netbook, two actually.

The first was a Toshiba 305N, at $450 quite an expensive netbook. My joy lasted all but an hour, as I installed the tools that I needed I realized quickly that the thing was way too underpowered, no way that I could do even basic photoediting on it. So back it went where it came from.

In it’s replacement I bought an acer Aspire 1830T.

To call it a netbook is probably a bit of a "lie". The little thing is quite well equipped. 11.6" screen, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD and even an HDMI output.

It works very well indeed, I did some on the fly photo editing in Lightroom with images from my Panasonic GF1 and it did it well.

The small trackpad is a bit of a concern for me though as especially the gestures don’t always seem to work. Apparently the driver supplied by Dell works better but I haven’t installed it yet. The problem could very well be the touchpad, mine is made by Alps and online many people complain about the funcationality of it, while the ones with the Synaptic verson seem to be happy as clams.

This being a netbook and going with the latest style it has, unfortunately, a glossy screen. If I would hate myself I would very quickly need to overcome this, even as I type, in a semi dark room, the screen and bezel are so shiny that I can see myself. Oh, I need a shave I guess, thankfully if I am ever stuck at the side of the road with no mirror this won’t be a problem. The Computer screen will do just fine.

Another point of complaint for me is the keyboard.

Firstly, the keys are flat, which makes it hard to "feel" where you are, but this you can get used to.

Worse is how the keyboard has been laid out. For some reason someone at Acer thought that having a full sized CAPSLOCK key was necessary, but the shift key on the left hand side was cut in half. The end result? I often hit the \ key instead of the shift key, which then has me struggle back the text and fix it.

On the right hand side a similar brainfart seems to have occured. Instead of having the return key wide at the bottom (you know, the way IBM original laid out the keyboard on the Selectric typewriters), the Acer engineers thought it should do so at the top, instead in the lower par they squeeze in the copy of what they had done on the right, meaning, more than once instead of a line break, I get this: \

Yeah, nice, if I need to escape that would be handy, but mostly I write texts in an editor, not computer code or on the shell.

I am sure in time I will get used to these quirks, but honestly, if Acer would have addressed these it would be THE perfect computer to take with you, the build in SD card reader has proven useful as well, no juggling with card readers or USB cables, just pop out the SD card from the camera and plug it into the notebook and you’re good to go.

Pros:

- Small Form Factor, light too.
- Powerful, can replace most notebooks "on the go".
- Six hours of battery life (they claim 8, but I think that would only be possible without any wireless.
- Large HDD and screen resolution (1366×768)

Cons:

- Glossy Screen (not only reflective as hell but also fingerprint attracting)
- Awkward Keyboard layout
- Temperamental touchpad.

Verdict:

If you are looking for a small, portable computer with lots of power you probably will be hard pressed to find anything similar for the price. My model comes with the i3-330UM CPU but in the US they will also sell you one with an i5 and 500GB HDD.

A little story made the rounds on the Internet recently which seems to imply that come Mac OS 10.7 only applications that have been approved by Apple and distributed through their app store (for OS X) would be allowed to run on the computer, so no more downloading shady software from parts of the Internet just because you want. Apple won’t let you.

As it goes with stories like these the moment it “broke” the slagging started with people on the one side saying “Evil Apple” while others were more relaxed and essentially said: “Apple would never do that”, and a few even thought of this as a good idea.

So what are the odds that Apple would do something like this? From Apple’s perspective this actually makes sense, they are already controlling the iPhone and iPod environment via the app store. Sure, you can jailbreak your iPhone and then use any kind of app on it that you want, even install a completely new OS on it, but for the majority of people what Apple approves is what they will eat.

But iPhones and iPods (and iPads now) are one thing, a Computer is something else, aren’t we all just deeply excited to write our own programs, fiddle with code and have full control over every minute part of the computer? If you say yes you fall probably in the 1% of the population that actually does this. The rest will still be shaking their heads right now.

Still though, people aren’t quite used to the idea that they have to go through their Computer vendor to get software, but if Apple would want to do this, how would they go about it?

Firstly, they have already trained a lot of people to accept the app store as the arbiter of software to find. In turn for many smaller developer it has turned into a successful distribution method, so why not expand it?

Secondly, Apple could open an Appstore for OS X, once it is open they could make it “difficult” for apps that haven’t come from the App store by simply making it annoying. Right now if you download an application from the net and start it up for the first time OS X warns you that this application was downloaded from the Internet on a given date and that OS X isn’t sure you should really run this. Now imagine they would do this everytime you start an app, added with a note that trusted applications can be found in the app store?

Three, once people are used of using the appstore to find their apps instead of the internet, force them to go there. The majority won’t care as they are already used to it anyway and the few geeks that will be pissed off can be ignored.

So what about the public backlash if Apple would be doing this? I predict slim to none. The people who care about open systems are a minority. The average computer user “eats” what he is given, they don’t scour the internet for applications or try to custom build their own. If Apple shows them a big enough carrot in the form of the appstore combined with some nice fear mongering with regard to the dangers of the internet they can get people to buy into it.

Will they do it? Who knows, Steve Jobs maybe. But if you look at the way Apple has been developing it’s products it just seems to make some kind of sense. There was a huge outcry when the iPod came with unexchangable batteries, there was a huge outcry when Apple insisted on only letting applications on the iPhone that came via the appstore and again when they did the battery thing with the new Laptops (me being one of the by the way). Has it hurt Apple? Not in the least, they are selling more devices than they ever have before and they will continue to do so.

The one thing all the Gees and Free Software advocates forget is something very simple: Most people already treat their computers like appliances, if Apple can give them that feeling on the computer while still letting them do what they want they will like it.

Bought it off of Craigslist for $50, it is in working order (though could use some cleaning) and comes with a wood / leather case and a brush (original?).

Looks like it was either bought in Calgary or Regina…. It clearly has travelled.

My “workhorse”, Canon A1 with a 50mm f/1.8. It is a a bit dinged up (see duct tape) but works like a charm. I would like some more FD lenses in the future, but for now it takes beautiful photos.

The “new kid on the block”, I saw it at a camera store and was charmed by the oxymoron that the camera represents. It still takes nice pictures though.

My Mamiya 645 Pro-TL. A wonderful 6×4.5 camera (hence the name), which is a very popular studio camera. It uses the prism finder which provides TTL metering and exposure. The camera features replaceable film backs which means you can switch between different film stock on the fly. Took me a while to get used to it, but now I am taking some nice pictures.

Zeiss Ikon 523/16, romantic Germanic naming for a camera that has a long tradition. Still waiting for my first pictures to come back, but once I have mastered it I think I will get some nice results out of it. The Tessar lens is quite well renowned for it’s picture quality.

Lying in bed, can’t sleep messing with the iPod Touch and found a WordPress app. It’s slick, but like most apps it does not support widescreen

Why???? Seriously, is it that hard to implement?

Portal – Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.