Posted: November 30th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: business, technology, travel | No Comments »
One thing about being an IT consultant…it is rare that you get an office or a desk to sit at. If you are looking for a nice desk and a place to put some pictures, consulting is probably not for you. In the few years that I have done this, I always end up sitting in some unusual spots. Here are some places I have ended up:
- In a Brazillian Churrascaria for a few weeks
- In a conference room off of a data center
- In several different hallways
- On the ground in a hallway next to an elevator bank
- In a presentation room overlooking lottery operations
- In a 2nd floor “fishbowl” conference room at Devonshire and Summer
- A desk in an airplane factory
- In a cold foods storage facility
- In several hospitals
Sometimes it can be interesting. At other times, it can be a real, physical, pain in the ass.
Being constantly mobile requires me to carry my entire office in my bag. I finally got rid of the business case I carried and replaced it with a Timbuk2 messenger bag. It is made out of extremely durable Nylon. It is nearly waterproof. It is comfortable, and I think pretty stylish. It also makes me miss my bicycle.
Posted: November 27th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: business, stuff | 1 Comment »
Someone should sue Freecreditreport.com. Oh wait, the FTC has done that. Unfortunately, I was scammed by them.
Basically, even though the website says FREEcreditreport.com, you need to read the fine print. They charge a 12.95 fee to your credit card, on a MONTHLY basis, to check your credit report there. I figured that a service run by Experian wouldn’t rip me off, but I was wrong. I found out when I saw charges from “CIC*CE CREDIT REPORT 8003888725″ on my past two credit statements. To be fair, it does state that they will charge you on their website if you read the fine print which is in blue text over a blue background.
Their deceptive practices have been posted by other websites, so do a Google search and see for yourself. I called my credit card and contested the charges. They may win, but I’ll make sure they have to work for their 26 bucks.
By the way, if you want to check your credit, the right website is annualcreditreport.com.
Posted: November 25th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: health, stuff | No Comments »
One of my favorite places to shop in Massachusetts is Ocean State Job Lot. If you live near one, I highly recommend you go check out their deals. Most of it is unnecessary crap, but they usually have a great selection of staples. Occasionally, there is an item that you need at half the price you’d find elsewhere.
I was in there the other day looking for some things for Tracey‘s workshop yesterday and I found something on my Christmas list at a significant discount. I found a Taylor Digital Scale with a body fat analyzer. The scale was $20 at Ocean State, but is $35 on Amazon. The body fat analyzer is supposed to be used as an estimate, but the actual scale is very precise. It is much more precise than my $5 Ikea scale – that is for sure.
My scale tells me that I way 13 pounds more than I did before I went to Arkansas. And on top of that, I have approximately 24-25% body fat. I need to start working out and eating healthier, and I hope I can bring that down to 15%…which is considered healthy for my age and height.
Posted: November 21st, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: stuff | No Comments »
I think that Tracey might have created a new thing. I have never heard of a blog sale before, but I guess that is what she is having. Plus, she is
DOING EVERYTHING IN
HER OWN QUIET STYLE. Check out her
blog to see the items that she is selling.
Labels: Stuff
Posted: November 20th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: music | 3 Comments »
I used to play bass guitar on occasion. I liked learning the bass, and it really helped me learn some music theory. I sold my bass when I left Minneapolis, mainly because I never had time to play it.
The main thing I wanted was an instrument that I can play while watching TV and vegging out. I thought about a buying an acoustic guitar, but I started to get interested in another four-stringed instrument – the Ukulele. So, I just bought an Ohana CK-50 on Ebay. It was shipped to me from Hawaii, and I am very happy with my purchase.
So far, it is awesome. It sounds great, and I have a lot of fun playing it!
Uke Stats:
Ohana CK-50
Concert Size
Solid Cedar Top
Solid Rosewood Back & Sides
Solid Mahogany Neck
19-fret Rosewood Fingerboard
Rosewood Bridge
Pearl Dot Inlays
Nickel Friction Pegs with White Buttons
Aquila Strings
Posted: November 14th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: business | No Comments »
I’ve fielded a bunch of questions about my investment in E*Trade from friends and family. I’ve been an outspoken fan of the company and their services. Yes, I have a large paper loss in the stock, and I am not happy about it. But I am well-diversified, and E*Trade is only one holding in my portfolio. I also own shares of other companies, and a variety of mutual funds and ETFs. I’m still in positive territory for the year.
I am disappointed in the stock. Their core business is doing great. Thanks to the magic of direct deposit, their accounts continue to grow. E*trade saw an overall growth of assets of 4% last month! I don’t blame the management for what happened, and I don’t think that they should be blamed for investing in the asset-backed securities. After all, that is how banks make money, they take deposits and loan it out. E*Trade actually had very little sub-prime exposure, and the problem that they face are a result of the deteriorating AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities.
The real problem and the blame belong to two entities. First, I think the investing community and the general public should be very angry at the rating agencies. Besides some regulatory probes, they really are not being forced to change their ways or face the music. The companies did not do what they said they were doing.
Secondly, much of the reaction and speculation that is in the marketplace is a result of a single analyst. The analyst currently works for Citigroup, which is not exactly a neutral party. Citigroup is facing multi-billion dollar write-offs, and is facing a possible break-up. In addition, the company has often been named as a potential suitor for E*Trade.
I am disappointed that a stock that I thought was safe from this type of turmoil is now being traded by speculators. As a conservative investor, I try to avoid these situations. Right now, I am hoping that E*Trade will be able to get out of the securities that are causing them pain and to rally out of this slump. If they can get past this debacle, I hope that the strength of their core franchise will help them grow in the next few years.
Posted: November 10th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: technology | No Comments »
I installed OpenSUSE 10.3 on my work laptop today. I had borrowed a few DVDs from a coworker to do the install, and I figured that it should be pretty easy. Unfortunately, I ran into a few problems along the way.
I had a lot of trouble getting the operating system to install on disk. The DVDs looked like they were working. However, when it went to do the first boot, it would present an error stating that “no operating system is present.” I ended up fiddling with the partitioning setup manually to get it to work.
Not all the drivers were available for my laptop on the two install DVDs. I figured out that you really, really, really need an internet connection to do a proper install.
I had issues backing up my data before I did the install. This was purely my mistake. Luckily, I did not lose that much data, since my previous incremental backup was a few weeks ago. Also, all the work for my current project is in a central SVN repository.
The next week or so will be filled with annoying tasks. I love the new graphics and icons on 10.3 though. And the ATI one-click install worked for the graphics driver. So far, so good!
Posted: November 7th, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: business, technology | No Comments »
This is old news, but I thought I’d share that my company is currently restructuring some business units. We have been restructuring for quite some time, and this is just a continuation of events.
Several people have asked me whether or not I’ll have my job. As far as I know, my job is fairly safe, and I should be able to ride out the turbulence. It stinks to see people that I know and have hung out with get a pink slip. Unfortunately, it is just a part of life and the technology industry.
This sort of job uncertainty is part of being a technology knowledge worker. This is the hardest thing to explain to my parents. My father’s engineering career is about to end soon, and he spent 45 years working for three companies – GE, Parsons. and Bechtel.
Because I have been traveling to Arkansas for the last 9 months, I don’t get to see my friends and family as often as I’d like. Whenever there is a news article (e.g. selling out a deal with Microsoft), I get a lot of questions from concerned people. Giving updates to everyone is sort of like sending home letters from a war.