midwest

free food

I just went to the break room to refill my tea, get a soda, and get another soda for my monitor stand.

When I got there, I saw a huge stack of boxed lunches on the counter.  There were about 20-30 of them.  As I went to grab some milk from the fridge I wondered if I should take one.  As I was taking that step, a crowd of about 10 people descended upon the break room and attacked the boxed lunches.  In the commotion I heard things like “news travel fast,” and “if it wasn’t pear salad…”

By the time I finished getting my hot water, the crowd was gone and so were all but three of the boxed lunches (all pear salad).  As I left the break room I still saw a few people hanging out in the hallway with their lunch boxes open exchanging items.

Me?  I’m still not hungry.

cheap power!

I got my first full electricity bill a few days ago.  It was shocking.  I managed to use 310KWH over the months of August and September.  If I were still in Connecticut with their insane $0.26/KWH I would be owing almost $100!

Thankfully, Seattle City Light relies on cheap hydroelectric power.  Total charge:  $17.40, or a average cost of about $0.056/KWH – that’s generation AND delivery!

So it seems like I’m using about 5KWH a day, or about 200W being used on average.  That seems like a lot.  I think this also tells me that if I get another computer that I leave on all day it’ll double my electricity bill.  Hrm…

Oh…  I’d also like to mention that this is my first post using Windows Live Writer.  So far it’s a little slow, but it has a nice WYSIWYG and pulls in my tags.  Neat.

easier rebuild ever

My Vista laptop has gotten so broken that I had to wipe it clean after less than three months. Three hours later, I'm almost completely back to 100%, thanks to a few neat tools and tricks.

Awesomeness #1: Net install of Windows Vista and MS Office 2007
One of the perks of working at Microsoft. I can install it all over the network and it includes scripts for installing all the updates. Sweet. I started the process at about 3pm, then went to Target to do some shopping. By the time I was back it took another half hour and it was done. Now I just need to deal with reinstalling stuff.

Awesomeness #2: Windows Easy Transfer
I knew my laptop was terminal and its condition was worsening fast. Knowing that I needed to back up my settings, I turned to Easy Transfer. Easy Transfer is hidden somewhere in accessories, but it backs up all those Control Panel settings and app settings. This way I just restored and I didn't need to bother setting all my settings again. Sweet.

Awesomeness #3: Windows Live Mesh
All my documents are backed up on Windows Live Mesh. Usually this is great so I can access my files from home, my phone, your place, wherever. Today it helped me out by having an updated backup ready to go without me having to think or worry. Love it. The other folder that I have syncing is my Favorites folder. All those links to internal sites that I've accumulated have my magically restored. Sure, there's a 5GB limit, but that's adequate (for now at least).

Awesomeness #4: Exchange Server
Where are my Outlook settings? On the server. I am set and ready to go.

And if you're wondering what caused the downfall of my laptop, I'll blame the multiple installs, uninstalls, and reinstalls of pre-release software (Windows Live Clients, IE8 betas, Google Chrome, FireFox betas) and a bunch of other crap like sketchy nVidia drivers, Apple bloatware (Bonjour), and fat applications like FireFox, IE, and Live Mesh.

interesting because the ballot is in english!

view from the msft cafeteria at lincoln square

four more years!

I just checked the archives and it's been about four years since I started this blog. It's gone through several URLs, from http://paulip88.blogspot.com to http://www.paulip.com to http://blog.paulip.com.

A link to the original post:
http://blog.paulip.com/2004_10_01_archive.html

Apparently back then I used Yahoo! Photos (which has since been axed). Scary.

worst case scenario of the day

I've already talked about the death spiral of dwindling confidence in the markets, but not here. Brief summation: People are fearful of an economic downturn and are preparing for it by cutting spending. The cuts in spending result in less commerce, which causes pushes down profits even more. Repeat... over... and over... and over.

Going another level deeper, as people hold on to their dollars, the reduces the "multiplier" effect of how many times a dollar is spent. In fat times, people spend. When it's spent, the next guy spends it... repeat... over... and over... Each time this happens, people have income. Things look good. Get one dollar and cycle it through a million hands a million times and everyone is making a million bucks! If someone holds on to that buck, everyone makes less. Right now everyone is holding on to that buck.

So the worst case scenario... WAR:
When people are doing well, people like to make money. When things go down the shitter, people get PISSED. I doubt this would directly affect us in the US that much since despite our dependence on foreign oil, we do have a solid base of agriculture, manufacturing, resources, services, and we also have a ways to fall before people really start suffering. (Then again, most Americans have no idea what it's like in the "real world," so who knows) I'm more concerned about places like China. China relies on the world economy to consume all the goods it produces. China has a huge population, all of whom directly or indirectly rely on exports to the rest of the world for their wages. So what happens when the factories start to shut down? Potentially hundreds of millions of people will be without jobs, and they will be PISSED. Continued joblessness and poverty generally leads to unrest. When this happens, well... it'll suck. How it will unfold is unclear.

If the government steps in with social welfare programs early, things will be fine. If they engage in job creation New Deal style, things would probably be fine. If they pull a Fourth Reich/Hitler type deal, things will be pretty ugly. If the country implodes, then the rest of the world would experience a boom when they help China rebuild. Or maybe they'll go back to more traditional communism?

every day gets better and better

Looks like the market is down another 7-8% today.  On the bright side, even if the market drops 8% a day, we would still always have some money left.  And we would also be losing less nominally each day.  In other words, even though everything is falling apart it would be getting better and better every day.  It's like what Novemsky liked to talk about regarding colonoscopies.  Leaving it in doesn't make it feel any better, but yet it does.

mystery meat

flight aa269

4:20 boarding begins
4:50 depart gate
6:20 cannot proceed because the plane ahead of us possibly blew soMe
debris into our engines
6:35 heading back to gate
7:00 wait for equipment to be moved at the gate
7:10 arrive at the gate
7:55 cleared to leave
8:13 push back from gate
9:05 takeoff!
11:00 scheduled arrival in SEA
2:30 touchdown in Seattle
2:35 at the gate!

Only a little over 10 hours for a direct flight.

is there asphalt in the engine???

company match

Rocking the company match for the first time.  Funny because I'm giving to a cause my ex is supporting.  It would have happened sooner if Outlook didn't dump the reminder e-mail I sent myself into the spam folder.  It seems like it does that a lot.

And if you're curious or if you're in a generous mood:
http://waystogive.texaschildrens.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=210&srcid=211&frsid=90

It's for the kids!

in bed!

nice ride

leaving work "late"

wifi on the bus

I'm trying wifi on the bus home for the first time. It works, but it's
a bit slow. I'm downloading this song from iTunes right now and it's
going at about 6kBps. Oh well, what else would I be doing here on the
bus? Maybe I'll do some web browsing and see how many times safari
crashes on the iPhone. Wish me luck.

idiot mba candidate

From: Ip, Paul
Sent: Wed 09/10/2008 12:40 PM
To: Idiot MBA Candidate
Subject: RE: Tech Product Management at yale

I've been doing well. Thanks for the followup three months later. I was wondering whether you were ever going to get back to me.

Since you prefer to do the complete impersonal style of the Google Forms Informational Interview, I would advise you to also try the Google Search Information Interview. I sure you can find a wealth of information about Product Management online. It also requires less personal interaction and followup, which appears to be what you're looking for anyway.

Seriously... what response do you expect to recieve after claiming to "really really appreciate" it if I could give you a few minutes, then not even sending back an e-mail after I respond within 24 hours saying that you can call me whenever you want with your questions.

Paul Ip

________________________________

From: Idiot MBA Candidate
Sent: Tue 09/09/2008 11:26 PM
To: Ip, Paul
Subject: Re: Tech Product Management at yale

Hey Paul,

How have you been doing ? Hopefully you're settled down and enjoying MS.

If you have some time, it would help a lot if you could answer some product management questions for me. (I'll be sending out the questions in another email using google forms)

Cheers
- Idiot MBA Candidate

On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 10:11 PM, Paul Ip wrote:

Sure thing. I'm in Seattle this week looking for apartments, so just give me a call whenever. Chances are I'll just be walking around somewhere in the city.

Paul Ip
--------------------------------------

Class of 2008
Yale School of Management

On Jun 7, 2008, at 10:31 PM, "Idiot MBA Candidate" wrote:

Hello Paul,
I recently came across your profile on the yale message boards and as some one keen on following a very similar career track, I would really really appreciate it if you could give me a few minutes to talk about yale and how it is in general for product management.

Cheers !
-- Idiot MBA Candidate

transitions

So coming to Seattle to work full time, I knew that some things would
be different from last year. Some things would change for the better,
some for worse, and some would just change...

As always, I love optimizing my modes of transportation. I've been
rocking the bus pass at least five times a week whereas I used it
twice all of last summer. Not surprisingly, I'm also driving a lot
less. I think I've put on less than 2,000 miles since I arrived here
in Seattle and most of that was in the first two weeks when I was
driving to IKEA every day. Nowadays I use my car only once or twice a
week. Not bad.

I also got a bike Saturday. It's something I should have done last
year with the intern bike money. So far I've already biked to REI and
hit up downtown twice. The ride back up to my place sucks (I live 500'
up from downtown), but the ride down is exhilirating. And yes, I got a
helmet. (-:

Another odd change is my social life. I was a bit of a recluse last
summer... Yes - weird. I'm doing better this year, but still not at
biz school levels (which is probably a good thing, especially for the
liver). And yes, need to get back in touch with some people. At the
same time, I've been lucky to meet a cool chick that I've spent some
quality time with. Yeah, she's pretty... AWESOME. Heh heh.

Then there is work. I'll leave out the meaningful details, but I knew
some things would be different. It's been easier getting up to speed,
and the people are still cool. On a less significant topic, I always
knew last year that at some point I would stop abusing the free soft
drinks and start consuming bevs like a normal person. Rather than
constantly drinking endless Talking Rain sparkling waters, I've
started drinking more regular water from a plastic bottle. Probably
better for the teeth and the balance sheet.

So what else... um... I think I'm ditching cable tv at the end of
football season.

worst banana ever