Friday, June 16, 2006
Off to France!
I'm off to France on a concert tour with the San Francisco Bay Area
Chamber Choir. I will return on July 7. I may try to post
occasionally while on the road, if this email method works to my
satisfaction, so check back occasionally for updates.
--Fred
Thursday, June 15, 2006
My new hero: Hugh Chou
The New York Times article of June 10 by Damon Darlin, "Advice to All You Graduates: Let's Start With That Daily Latte . . ." contained financial advice most of us have probably seen before. But lurking in the article was a link to my new online hero: Hugh Chou.
Hugh, it seems, writes online calculators. Lots of them. Mainly for calculating payment schedules and amounts for various types of loans, but also for things like how much money you can save by not going to Starbucks, by making your own lunch, or by quitting smoking.
And he has fun doing it. Clearly he enjoys creating the calculators himself, and enjoys sharing them, but he also has a good time writing about them in his brief summaries. An example:
Interest Only vs Amortized Loan Comparison Okay, I have answered one too many e-mails on interest only loans! Here is a calculator that can answer all your questions.
Hugh gives his work away online for free, but does solicit donations to a different charity every year for people who use his tools and want to say thanks.
In all, Hugh's website is a wonderful place. Highly recommended.
Hugh, it seems, writes online calculators. Lots of them. Mainly for calculating payment schedules and amounts for various types of loans, but also for things like how much money you can save by not going to Starbucks, by making your own lunch, or by quitting smoking.
And he has fun doing it. Clearly he enjoys creating the calculators himself, and enjoys sharing them, but he also has a good time writing about them in his brief summaries. An example:
Interest Only vs Amortized Loan Comparison Okay, I have answered one too many e-mails on interest only loans! Here is a calculator that can answer all your questions.
Hugh gives his work away online for free, but does solicit donations to a different charity every year for people who use his tools and want to say thanks.
In all, Hugh's website is a wonderful place. Highly recommended.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Palm - unclear on the whole "unsubscribe" thing
In preparation for my upcoming France trip, I've been unsubscribing from email newsletters, ads, and other announcements. It's been very gratifying, and -- to the companies' credit -- relatively painless. Until today.
I get a weekly email from Palm. It had the handy "change your subscriptions" link at the bottom, which I followed. I checked off (that is, removed the check from) the newsletter I wanted to unsubscribe, and then noticed a box at the bottom of the form: "Please cancel my subscription to all Palm newsletters." I checked that as well.
The system didn't like it. I got this error message:
The workaround: I needed to select at least one newsletter, and also the Cancel All selection, and resubmit. That seems to have worked.
Silly, silly, silly.
I get a weekly email from Palm. It had the handy "change your subscriptions" link at the bottom, which I followed. I checked off (that is, removed the check from) the newsletter I wanted to unsubscribe, and then noticed a box at the bottom of the form: "Please cancel my subscription to all Palm newsletters." I checked that as well.
The system didn't like it. I got this error message:
The workaround: I needed to select at least one newsletter, and also the Cancel All selection, and resubmit. That seems to have worked.
Silly, silly, silly.
