tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46376316072494180812024-03-05T01:51:12.086-07:00The Other Kelly YanceyKelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-41392041675630297532018-06-20T16:54:00.000-07:002018-06-20T16:54:11.619-07:00World Refugee DayI won't link to the original posting on Facebook, but I'm refreshed by former President Obama's eloquence in his World Refugee Day statement. May it serve as a reminder of the ideals and responsibilities of this great nation.<br />
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Today is World Refugee Day.</div>
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If you’ve been fortunate enough to have been born in America, imagine for a moment if circumstance had placed you somewhere else. Imagine if you’d been born in a country where you grew up fearing for your life, and eventually the lives of your children. A place where you finally found yourself so desperate to flee persecution, violence, and suffering that you’d be willing to travel thousands of miles under cover of darkness, enduring dangerous conditions, propelled forward by that very human impulse to create for our kids a better life.</div>
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That’s the reality for so many of the families whose plights we see and heart-rending cries we hear. And to watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?</div>
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Our ability to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others, to say “there but for the grace of God go I,” is part of what makes us human. And to find a way to welcome the refugee and the immigrant – to be big enough and wise enough to uphold our laws and honor our values at the same time – is part of what makes us American. After all, almost all of us were strangers once, too. Whether our families crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we’re only here because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, how our last names sound, or the way we worship. To be an American is to have a shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve the chance to become something better.</div>
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That’s the legacy our parents and grandparents and generations before created for us, and it’s something we have to protect for the generations to come. But we have to do more than say “this isn’t who we are.” We have to prove it – through our policies, our laws, our actions, and our votes.</div>
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Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-78013619162351712602017-06-28T09:30:00.001-07:002017-06-28T09:30:52.563-07:00Witty python-requests Session Object<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CteQPES4WphJEcQNTgU5cPT0NNvIZlgZZKsnolsjZu2BwbthAI_p-0AI3qpFGM24lZBy35q-dkwEQ9xkIN8p_N_DafDKT3w0zlP04CFHIdX_lya08iK6gb211u7orhxYfBYCS9Q-8Q4/s1600/session.jeff.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CteQPES4WphJEcQNTgU5cPT0NNvIZlgZZKsnolsjZu2BwbthAI_p-0AI3qpFGM24lZBy35q-dkwEQ9xkIN8p_N_DafDKT3w0zlP04CFHIdX_lya08iK6gb211u7orhxYfBYCS9Q-8Q4/s1600/session.jeff.png" /></a><br />
<br />
See the <a href="https://github.com/requests/requests/pull/4162/files" target="_blank">full pull request on GitHub</a>.<br />
<br />Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-73396196802222732582017-02-09T11:23:00.001-08:002017-02-09T11:23:48.442-08:00Banning Immigrants is WrongI can't believe I had to write that title. In the 21st century, no less.<br />
Did the sitting President, his aides, and his supporters forget that the United States of America is a country of immigrants?<br />
<br />
Obviously, like all countries, we have a legal framework to immigrate into the country. But to deny the legal immigration of any person from a handful of countries who do not profess your preferred faith, is morally reprehensible and fundamentally against the values of this nation.<br />
<br />
President Trump's executive order banning immigrants from 7 predominantly Muslim nations is not just reprehensible, though, it is indefensible.<br />
<br />
Nora Ellingsen, who provided case assistance for international terrorism investigations for 5 years at the FBI, <a href="https://lawfareblog.com/its-not-foreigners-who-are-plotting-here-what-data-really-show" target="_blank">recently analyzed the public terrorism cases</a> and arrived at this damning conclusion:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 20px;">Since January 2015, the FBI has also arrested more anti-immigrant American citizens plotting violent attacks on Muslims within the U.S. than it has refugees, or former refugees, from any banned country. As we wrote about </span><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/international-terrorism-prosecutions-domestic-terrorists-target-muslims" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #006a72; cursor: pointer; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px; opacity: 0.7; padding-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 250ms ease-in-out 0ms;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 20px;">, </span><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/whats-matter-visiting-kansas" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #006a72; cursor: pointer; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px; opacity: 0.7; padding-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 250ms ease-in-out 0ms;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 20px;"> and </span><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/whats-matter-visiting-kansas-part-ii" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #006a72; cursor: pointer; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px; opacity: 0.7; padding-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 250ms ease-in-out 0ms;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 20px;">, in October 2016, three white men from Kansas were charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. According to the graphic complaint, the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant men planned to attack a mosque in the area. The men progressed quickly with their plot, amassing firearms and explosives. The targets were people from Somalia, who ironically, would now be covered by Trump’s order.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...<span style="color: #222222; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px;">if the purpose of the Executive Order is to keep Americans safe by keeping foreigners from certain countries out, it surely bears emphasis that the empirical data indicate that foreign nationals </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px;">simply aren’t plotting attacks within U.S. borders at the same rate as U.S. citizens</em><span style="color: #222222; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px;">. Indeed, the rates aren’t anywhere close to comparable.</span> </blockquote>
President Trump's order is hateful and only fans the flames of animosity that divide us and inspire terrorism in all of its forms.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-64995032175130864422016-08-02T00:01:00.001-07:002016-08-02T10:53:14.830-07:00Inventor in Japan<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT6XHvOiCzcKFPqlymZbK5xYvxY7ufgDDoCpsJhyZGIuv3eoHNrv6nAFRfqQvOgeIDMEQWNPfbeGrYQgPoN4rCjt7SmeAygLrZrRofBfTBpX38c0Ul2bOINtMGW5fXckmm1uu39TdcX98/s1600/000011.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT6XHvOiCzcKFPqlymZbK5xYvxY7ufgDDoCpsJhyZGIuv3eoHNrv6nAFRfqQvOgeIDMEQWNPfbeGrYQgPoN4rCjt7SmeAygLrZrRofBfTBpX38c0Ul2bOINtMGW5fXckmm1uu39TdcX98/s320/000011.png" width="320" /></a><br />
I am delighted to announce that I have been acknowledged as an inventor of Japanese <a href="http://astamuse.com/ja/granted/JP/No/5261432" target="_blank">patent #5261432</a> for a system I designed while at NTT Communications. I'd like to thank my friends and colleagues NOZAWA Ken, SHIMIZU Shigeko, and YAMAMOTO Rie for their support, and my manager HATAKENAKA Teruaki for his patience and understanding. Most of all, I'd like to thank TAKANASHI Hitoshi, the head of NTT Multimedia Communications Laboratories at the time, for making it possible for me to live and work in Tokyo.<br />
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The patent has a rather long title that translates to "Communications System, Packet Transfer Method, Network Switching Equipment, Access Control Equipment, and Program" and describes a unique system we devised to extend corporate network traffic to select terminals on public networks without the need of VPN software by creating virtual circuits through a (trusted) telecommunications infrastructure. I initially designed the system to meet some specific business requirements of NTT Communications' HOTSPOT wireless service; it is awesome to see the diagrams from my design document -- including the one above -- appear verbatim in the patent.<br />
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I am a little disappointed that I got bottom billing on the inventor list, but I assume that reflects my status as a contractor and the work that I assume Nozawa-san, Shimizu-san, and Hatakenaka-san had to do to shepherd the patent application along after I returned to California. Nonetheless, I've got a patent in Japan -- how cool is that?<br />
<br />Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-82474786276933460372013-11-15T11:17:00.000-08:002013-11-15T21:33:51.116-08:00TSA Admits to Security Theater<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin</span></span></blockquote>
That quote has been repeated so many times over the past decade that it now sounds trite and tired.<br />
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Over that decade the government has taken away our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_privacy">right to privacy</a>, our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_under_United_States_law#Transportation_Security_Administration">freedom of movement</a>, our <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment">right against unreasonable search and seizures</a>, and <a href="http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/2014-budget-request-transportation-security-administration/2013-04-11">eight billion dollars worth of our labors</a> (and thus, our lives) each year -- all in the name of "safety from terrorists."<br />
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Well it turns out that leaked internal documents reveal that the <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131019/02322924936/accidentally-revealed-document-shows-tsa-doesnt-think-terrorists-are-plotting-to-attack-airplanes.shtml">TSA knows it doesn't prevent any terrorism</a>. That is right: all of those rights that have been forfeited by the American people in the name of safety were lost for nought. Just as Benjamin Franklin warned, we are left with neither liberty nor safety.<br />
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<br />Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-73132184423109016762013-07-24T15:15:00.001-07:002013-11-15T11:23:47.497-08:00But if it makes the roads safer...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzluG_fEwa4Y3lrWWXO87X65Vj6eHXf31lgkXzxAFwke__XXZ243fE5PY8ZL5HRdQAPldKJI_y6wLpLj5mzrjBdIyq6RuRT5ELiLRFq7Z6SXZieF3k3O0Td1Qv0lg-Kz6rCpRFYQxFto/s1600/drone_sign_071813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzluG_fEwa4Y3lrWWXO87X65Vj6eHXf31lgkXzxAFwke__XXZ243fE5PY8ZL5HRdQAPldKJI_y6wLpLj5mzrjBdIyq6RuRT5ELiLRFq7Z6SXZieF3k3O0Td1Qv0lg-Kz6rCpRFYQxFto/s1600/drone_sign_071813.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span id="goog_1541838540"></span><span id="goog_1541838541"></span>Just yesterday I made the comment that I didn't expect the average America to understand the danger of the surveillance state until it started being used to enforce traffic laws. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the first person to come to that conclusion. Only, <a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/fake-signs-warn-of-drones-patrolling-bay-area-highways/">this guy put his money where his mouth is</a>.<br />
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<b>Update</b>: Apparently the artist behind the signs is <a href="http://stephenwhisler.net/Sculpture/Pages/Speed_Enforced_by_Drones.html">Stephen Whisler</a>.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-86295769101299885262012-07-16T10:32:00.000-07:002012-07-16T15:59:46.322-07:00The Shore of the Cosmic Ocean<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/42909676" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/42909676">The Earth as You've Never Seen it Before: Atmosphere, Airglow and Aurora</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ajrclips">AJRCLIPS</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Also see <a href="http://www.auroranightglow.blogspot.com/2012/05/good-photograph-is-one-that-sparks.html">Alex Rivest's explanation of the colors you see in the atmosphere</a>.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-73064436338769535942012-05-04T11:19:00.000-07:002012-05-04T11:20:01.898-07:00You Down with BGP?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="254" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RT-1DU33xIk" width="500"></iframe>Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-79763464040004853672012-01-10T18:40:00.002-08:002012-01-10T18:40:43.610-08:00Yes We Could've<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UQXZoM__vU0" width="420"></iframe></center><br />
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It has been a sad ten years for the American people and it is shaping up to be a sad ten more.<br />
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Tomorrow is the <a href="http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Guantanamo+10+years+later/G3197?csp=ftsmpg">10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners</a> detained at Guantanamo Bay. As despicable as it is that the United States government ever operated the facility, the fact that it is <a href="http://news.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/2012011010_years_later_guantanamo_represents_obamas_failed_promise/srvc=home&position=recent">still open with 171 prisoners held without trial</a> is a sad testament to the morality (or impotence) of our leaders, our politicians, and our people.<br />
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This isn't a simple matter of inheriting a bad legacy from the previous administration. By passing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012#Indefinite_detention_without_trial:_Section_1031">National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012</a>, authorizing the arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial of terrorism suspects, Congress recently demonstrated a renewed commitment to the policies that led to the creation of the Guantanamo Bay prison in the first place.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-79418474164547371932012-01-01T02:35:00.005-08:002012-01-02T23:32:56.304-08:00Bon Nouvel An12 years ago, almost to the day, my wife and I started learning Japanese. It began when my wife gave me <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Comprehensive-Understand-Pimsleur-Language/dp/0743523539">Pimsleur's Japanese 1</a> for Christmas 2000. We studied together for the following 8 years, driving to San Francisco almost every Saturday to take lessons at <a href="http://sokogakuen.org/">Soko Gakuen</a>, spending every Saturday and Sunday evening watching Japanese programming on KTSF, and most other evenings practicing Kanji and vocabulary flashcards. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was capable of learning another language (as a point of reference: I studied Spanish for 5 years in High School & College and can't say I ever felt competent in Spanish).<br />
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Finally, <a href="http://kbyanc.blogspot.com/2007/09/moving-to-tokyo.html">we moved to Japan</a> in October 2007 where we lived for the following 2 and a half years. That also marked the end of our studies. During our time in Japan, I spent pretty much all day every day conversing and corresponding in Japanese, so I feel that my reading, speaking, and understanding skills continued to improve, but I stopped learning new vocabulary and stopped hand writing Kanji so I feel like I left Japan in some ways worse off than I had arrived.<br />
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Since returning to the U.S., I have been on the fence about resuming my Japanese studies. While I really enjoyed learning the language and met a number of kind and interesting people through my studies, it just isn't practical for me to continue. I have <a href="http://kbyanc.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-years-of-tokyo.html">no intention of going back to Japan to work</a>, my current work doesn't require Japanese skills, I've never been very keen on anime, and while being able to play Japanese video games in their native language is a neat trick, it really isn't worth spending years of your life for.<br />
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So it is with some sadness that I've finally decided that I won't be resuming my Japanese studies for the foreseeable future.<br />
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As a sort of final trip down memory lane (and possible reminder list should I decide later to study Japanese again), here is are some of the reference books that I found invaluable in learning Japanese:<br />
<ol>
<li>Japanese for Busy People <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Busy-People-Kana-Version/dp/4770030096/ref=pd_sim_b_3">Volume 1</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Busy-People-Kana-version/dp/4770020511">2</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Busy-People-III-Kana/dp/477002052X">3</a>. Kana versions, of course. If you aren't willing to learn the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana">Kana</a>, then you might as well stop pretending you are going to learn Japanese. These are a great place to start learning grammar, vocabulary, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji">kanji</a>. Once you finish all 3 volumes, you are probably ready to take level 3 of the <a href="http://www.jlpt.jp/e/">Japanese Language Proficiency Test</a>.</li>
<li>After you pass the level 3 test, it is time to start studying for the level 2 and level 1 tests. Really, the JLPT tests can be thought of as two sets of tests: level 4 and level 3 are for beginners; level 2 and level 1 are intermediate/advanced. The grammar covered in the level 4 & 3 tests is very similar, but level 3 is harder due to including more vocabulary and Kanji. Likewise, level 2 and level 1 cover almost the same grammer, but level 1 requires almost twice as much kanji and level 2. Anyway, when you get to studying for the level 2 and level 1 tests, you have to pick up a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/500-Essential-Japanese-Expressions-Sentence/dp/4872345894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325409634&sr=8-1">どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型500</a> from ALC Press. I found this book to be absolutely invaluable; my copy is well-worn with lots of notes in the margins.</li>
<li>Now, to actually prepare for the level 2 and level 1 tests, I recommend the following study guides:</li>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4893585665/ref=nosim/booksbyisbn-22">日本語能力試験1・2級試験問題と正解</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4872341155/ref=nosim/schildnet0c">日本語能力試験2級受験問題集</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Language-Proficiency-Grammar-masutaa/dp/4883190889/ref=pd_sim_b_1">完全マスター2級:日本語能力試験文法問題対策</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4883192407/ref=nosim/schildnet0c">完全マスター:日本語能力試験1・2レブル:語彙</a> </li>
</ol>
<li>Finally, if you are thinking of living and working in Japan, I highly recommend getting a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%95%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%93%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91BOOK-%E5%94%90%E6%B2%A2-%E6%98%8E/dp/4880861715/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/376-8095239-8536904">敬語これだけBOOK</a>. I picked this up on a whim while waiting in line at a bookstore and simply cannot recommend it enough. People will tell you that you don't need to know <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese">敬語</a>(<i>keigo</i>)...they are lying. Unless you have a significant other who can take care of your housing arrangements you will need <i>keigo</i>. Unless you work for a foreign company (where you can speak English) or you have no intention of working or researching in a professional office environment, you will need <i>keigo</i>. This book is extremely easy to understand; it consists of a series of situations where <i>keigo</i> would be appropriate and tells you 3 acceptable phrases -- ranked "good", "better", and "best" -- for each scenario along with a brief explanation why one phrase might be better than another. This books was written for young people in Japan, who also have trouble with honorific speech, so the opposing page consists of 3 common mistakes with explanations of why the phrases are wrong. As a non-native speaker, you can reasonably skip reading the mistake page -- if nothing else, skipping it will make sure that you don't have the wrong words floating around in your head ready to slip out when it matters most. Seriously, get this book.</li>
</ol>
Other than that, I highly recommend the full 3-course Pimsleur Japanese language program to anyone getting started with learning Japanese. I'd go so far as to suggest that you complete the entire first course -- 30 lessons -- before you even start with the Japanese for Busy People books. Buying the series new is pricey, so check with your local library, E-bay, or Craigslist for a used copy.<br />
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Finally, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have a great local resource in <a href="http://sokogakuen.org/">Soko Gakuen</a>. It is a non-profit language school associated with the Buddhist church in San Francisco's Japantown. The classes are reasonably-priced, have small class sizes, and are taught by great teachers. My wife and I took classes there every quarter for over 6 years.<br />
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So, what now?<br />
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Next up, we are trying our hands at learning French (hence the title of this post). We started the same way we had success with learning Japanese: with the Pimsleur Language Program. We're still on the first course, but so far, so good. Here's hoping that our studies will, again, lead to something rewarding.<br />
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Happy New Year!Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-51865362771437629002011-12-12T10:57:00.000-08:002011-12-12T11:04:42.957-08:00That's a lot of doughAs we prepare to celebrate another <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/07/1043036/-Jon-Stewart-declares-a-War-on-Christmas!">happy end of the fiscal fourth quarter</a>, the good folks over at <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd.com</a> have prepared an <a href="http://xkcd.com/980/">awesome infographic</a> reminding us what a dollar is worth. Click to see an intelligibly-sized image:<br />
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<a href="http://xkcd.com/980/huge/"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-6250901341983034582011-11-30T22:15:00.003-08:002011-11-30T22:30:30.495-08:00Wither posi.netI first registered the domain name posi.net back in 1995 during the great domain name gold rush. OK, so I was a little late to the party and all the good names were taken, but I was pretty happy to get a short domain name. I also kept the e-mail address kbyanc@posi.net until last year, when the volume of spam overwhelmed the little 233Mhz <a href="http://soekris.com/products/net4801.html">Soekris box</a> I've been using as my firewall, mail, web, and home file server.<br /><br />Earlier this year, I stopped renewing my Dynamic DNS service, effectively taking posi.net offline. And this month, after 16 years, I decided not to renew my domain registration.<br /><br />I never really did much with the posi.net domain -- I mostly just used it to host my open source code repositories and a few toy web sites. I've been slowly working on converting the toy web sites to run on <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/">Google App Engine</a> and am thinking of uploading the open source repositories to <a href="https://github.com/">github</a>. I'm not sure where I'm going to host my resume, but I'm not in any hurry to figure that one out.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-139567570280314132011-11-20T22:26:00.007-08:002011-11-20T23:26:52.787-08:00We the people...apparently flunked our high school government classes.<br /><br />As you probably know, the Obama administration has set up a <a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/how-why/introduction">"We the people" section</a> on the White House web site so as to solicit petitions from the American people. While there are a few well thought-out petitions, the majority just serve to demonstrate that many Americans have no idea how our federal government is designed to work nor what the function of the Executive branch is. For example:<ul><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/amend-constitution-making-internet-unalienable-right/YJ3fXQcm">Amend the Constitution, making the Internet an unalienable right.</a> Newsflash: the president does not have the power to add amendments to the constitution. <a href="http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/constamend.htm">Not even close</a>. Petition for it all you want, he can't make this happen.</li><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/void-voting-results-took-place-nicaragua-past-sunday-06-november-due-fraud-fsln/l77zCGHH">Void the voting results that took place in Nicaragua this past Sunday 06 of November due to fraud by the FSLN</a>. Seriously? He's the President of the <span style="font-style: italic;">United States</span>. When did Nicaragua become a state?</li><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/legalize-mixed-martial-arts-new-york/rV1fMfZ7">Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York</a>. The President doesn't pass laws, much less state laws. You too are barking up the wrong tree.</li><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/re-establish-and-maintain-separation-between-investment-banks-and-commercial-banks/ywCMKDfn">Re-establish and maintain the separation between investment banks and commercial banks</a>. I'm 100% for the restoration of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act">Glass-Steagall Act</a>...but the President doesn't pass laws. You need to petition your Congress-critters to get this done, not the Obama administration.</li><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/bar-courts-and-lawmakers-creating-second-class-religion-status-minority-religions-wicca-neopaganism/SKGx6wJV">Bar courts and lawmakers from a "second-class religion" status for minority religions like </a><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/bar-courts-and-lawmakers-creating-second-class-religion-status-minority-religions-wicca-neopaganism/SKGx6wJV">Wicca and NeoPaganism</a>. He's the President, not Dictator; he can neither tell courts nor lawmakers what to do. Have you not heard of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#United_States:_three_branches">separation of powers</a>?<br /></li><li><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/actually-take-these-petitions-seriously-instead-just-using-them-excuse-pretend-you-are-listening/grQ9mNkN">Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening</a>. See above. I imagine it is hard to respond to petitions demanding the President to do things he has no legal power to do. Well, respond with something other than "/facepalm", that is.</li></ul><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNPQLy5FT4RqZ0pX1tDZJSfp2oF0hcMTtu6oc7cIGkVE52wyQi8_84J_h7dmUBRiNbUnv2xcrMzxnlRJBm8rztj476sfyq1FjzC70gJ69DonmAhPO4AUf2f4XneRAPaclQ0O3Ln6vpao/s1600/obama-facepalm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNPQLy5FT4RqZ0pX1tDZJSfp2oF0hcMTtu6oc7cIGkVE52wyQi8_84J_h7dmUBRiNbUnv2xcrMzxnlRJBm8rztj476sfyq1FjzC70gJ69DonmAhPO4AUf2f4XneRAPaclQ0O3Ln6vpao/s320/obama-facepalm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5677346372738873266" border="0" /></a><br />I'm sure some of the authors of the above petitions would try and defend their misdirected efforts at government participation by pointing out that neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives offers a similar venue for soliciting petitions. That is true, and it is unfortunate. But that doesn't change the fact that the White House cannot act on many of the petitions. And, when some staffer writes <a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/response/promoting-innovation-and-competitive-markets-through-quality-patents">a lengthy explanation</a> of what the Executive branch has been doing to try and support your cause, it is doubly unfortunate that you don't seem to comprehend that it is all that he <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> do to support your cause.<br /><br />If you want to change the laws, you need to write your Congressman. It isn't the President's job to get your Congressman to vote the way you want.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-32115804585451583752011-11-05T17:24:00.004-07:002011-11-05T19:12:48.438-07:00Ken Burns: The National Parks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_PtoLWXySdDVbJygfGRrg1yvWqW4-QqlngobKmRtQUDWVXGpjPn1E1CnI_HjmuppRnSJgTJ1Rs3Kc0NPfa_b3KOci5Dsc2FJJOHgYvvch7yEL7l-v1s0Hn6TyVo_x3n_7fKCwzJ0Mok/s1600/wallpaper_olympic_240x320.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_PtoLWXySdDVbJygfGRrg1yvWqW4-QqlngobKmRtQUDWVXGpjPn1E1CnI_HjmuppRnSJgTJ1Rs3Kc0NPfa_b3KOci5Dsc2FJJOHgYvvch7yEL7l-v1s0Hn6TyVo_x3n_7fKCwzJ0Mok/s320/wallpaper_olympic_240x320.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671699792125959106" border="0" /></a>We finished watching six of the most inspirational movies I've ever seen: the six part series that is <a href="http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/">Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea</a>. Each part runs at a little over 2 hours long, full of American history set to the most beautiful scenery in the country.<br /><br />Starting with the founding of the first national parks, with Yosemite and Yellowstone, and continuing through to the present, the series chronicles the American values that led to the creation of the national park system. And, rather than just painting the picture in broad stokes, the series follows the individuals who fought to establish the parks for the common good as well as those who wanted to exploit the land for private gain.<br /><br />I can't recommend the series enough. Of course, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/tv-schedules/">PBS airs them</a> from time to time, but you can also watch them on <a href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ken-Burns-The-National-Parks-America-s-Best-Idea/70119960?strkid=1387143234_0_0&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strackid=14f53949afaec559_0_srl&trkid=222336">Netflix</a> (which is what we did). The visuals are breathtaking, the history illuminating, and the issues as topical today as they were 150 years ago.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-56668996103398883372011-09-07T14:30:00.006-07:002011-09-07T14:56:27.996-07:00Ingenious fraudI just got a SMS from 503-929-3160 with the text<blockquote>WELLS FARGO ALERT: Your ATM CARD has been DEACTIVATED. Please contact us at: 650-550-9255.</blockquote><br />There were 2 tip-offs that this was a fraud: first, the stereotypical use of unnecessary capitalization and, second, the fact that I don't have an account with Wells Fargo.<br /><br />Out of curiosity, I called the number to be greeted with an automated voice claiming to be the Wells Fargo card activation line and asking me to enter my 16 digit card number. I entered a bogus card number (sixteens ones) and was promptly cut off. <a href="http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&site=webhp&sa=X&ei=YOhnTvLUOKrkiAKkheWtDQ&ved=0CBUQvwUoAQ&q=wells+fargo+sms+activation+fraud&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=67cca108e1ea2034&biw=1236&bih=892">Rumor has it that</a> if you enter something with a valid check digit that the automated service will then prompt for your PIN number and then proceed to drain your account empty.<br /><br />The ingenious part of this scam is that it relies on the fact that there is no way to authenticate who sent a SMS. With online phishing attacks you can look at the URL to confirm that you are dealing with the entity that you expect. In addition, banks and other high-profile web sites get <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Validation_Certificate">Extended Verification Certificates</a> for their websites to help make it more clear when you are interacting with the real thing. But there is no such thing for text messages: you just see a phone number. How many people know the phone number of their bank and/or have entered it into their phone's address book?<br /><br />With services like <a href="http://www.twilio.com/api/">Twilio</a> making it trivial for ne'er-do-wells to extend their phishing attacks out of cyberspace into telephony, I suspect we'll be seeing more of these types of fraud attempts in the future. Of course, savvy people will never trust random text messages, but that still leaves a huge potential target for increasingly sophisticated fraud. God knows I hope my mother doesn't get one of these texts.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-30161482768609874862011-08-18T20:21:00.004-07:002011-08-18T20:26:23.186-07:00Introducing Jamie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcoho1HupWnH4GYQTezKlrtP-DC2n05IEUdR2WhyphenhyphenAtjz5_U6STFzoJE0VngUdvL6MaXLD-XjX975H5kYufE9wADYzL1ucwnOWG-xs_dqCjipbyHWtQj_NVCH5AkMMxDHlD8h0e3Tsco8/s1600/Jamie-and-Cristin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcoho1HupWnH4GYQTezKlrtP-DC2n05IEUdR2WhyphenhyphenAtjz5_U6STFzoJE0VngUdvL6MaXLD-XjX975H5kYufE9wADYzL1ucwnOWG-xs_dqCjipbyHWtQj_NVCH5AkMMxDHlD8h0e3Tsco8/s400/Jamie-and-Cristin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5642402829771214114" /></a>
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<br />Born 4:30am this morning at 20 inches long and 9 pounds. Both he and Mom are doing fine.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-48405540080022185722011-07-04T17:26:00.004-07:002011-07-04T18:22:57.962-07:00The "Keep Houses Unaffordable" InitiativeIn a misguided attempt to prop up the "values" of homes, the Federal Government is <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/113040/more-money-for-struggling-homeowners-smartmoney?mod=loans-home">giving free money to people who bought houses they couldn't afford</a> by extending low- or zero-interest loans with an option to not repay the loan. There are two separate programs: the <a href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/hcc/ehlp/how">HUD Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program</a> and the Treasury's <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/housing-programs/hhf/Pages/default.aspx">Hardest Hit Fund</a>.<br /><br />As a responsible family that did not overextend ourselves to by a house that we couldn't afford, this is just a slap in the face. I don't begrudge people who bought homes and have now fallen on hard times...although the possibility of job-loss is supposed to factor into the calculation of how much house you can afford. No, I'm irritated because these programs are feel-good attempts to prop up the still-overpriced housing market so that banks don't have to recognize the true value of their mortgage-backed assets. You see, as a lender, banks should care about the borrowers ability to repay. So long as the government is willing to step in and pay when borrowers can't, it just reinforces bad lending practices.<br /><br />Meanwhile, keeping home prices high is in no way good for us little people. It doesn't help people to have the burden of a home they can't afford hanging like an albatross around their necks. It doesn't help young families (such as my own) buy their first home...in fact, it actively obstructs that. Unless income rises to the point that homes are no longer ridiculously overpriced, which -- <a href="http://www.workinglife.org/wiki/Wages+and+Benefits%3A+Real+Wages+%281964-2004%29">with real wages falling for 40 years</a> -- doesn't seem likely, it does nothing to make homes more affordable. And affordability is the real problem with the housing market.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-89323415077213837032011-06-20T20:19:00.006-07:002011-07-04T18:22:01.246-07:00The Robber Barons of the 21st CenturyI guess this is old news for subscribers of Rolling Stone, but I just ran across <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405">this excellent article</a> they published in 2009 regarding the role the Goldman Sachs plays in the U.S. economy. In contrast to the random sound bites that fill so much of our media, it is well-researched article that it well worth the long read. Here is <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405?print=true">a link directly to the print version</a> so you don't have to click through the 8 pages.<br /><br />If, after reading that article, you are left with any doubt regarding Goldman Sachs' rigging of the U.S. economy in favor of themselves (not even their investors...just the bankers!), <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304186404576389680225394642.html">here is a current article</a> from the Wall Street Journal chronicling their manipulation of the aluminum commodities market.<br /><br />Folks, deregulation has gone too far. Over the last 25 years, Goldman Sachs has spearheaded the dismantling of the protections put in place in the wake of the Great Depression and look where it has gotten us.<br /><dl><dt><b>Update 2011/07/04</b>:</dt><dd>The Wall Street Journal has replaced their article with a partial snippet. Here are a <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201106161444dowjonesdjonline000635&title=2nd-updategoldman-under-fire-from-aluminum-users-over-warehouse-delays">few</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/19/986854/-Goldman-uses-Artificial-Aluminum-Bottleneck-to-Squeeze-Coca-Cola">more</a> <a href="http://agmetalminer.com/2011/06/29/are-glencore-jp-morgan-and-goldman-sachs-scamming-the-lme-warehouse-system/">articles</a> on Goldman Sachs' manipulation of the aluminum commodities market.</dd></dl>Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-29990152351279684082011-06-16T20:16:00.004-07:002011-06-16T20:26:38.991-07:00I can haz free house?In case anyone was wondering, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/09/real_estate/foreclosure_squatter/index.htm">I'd like a free house</a>. Shoot, I'm not greedy, I'd settle for just not paying rent for a couple of years. Oh, and some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html">free money</a> too. Thanks!Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-47670541943299843232011-04-05T22:17:00.005-07:002011-04-05T23:18:31.767-07:00Personal ExemptionAs part of my research while implementing <a href="http://mortgage-estimator.appspot.com/">my mortgage estimator</a> I discovered that, in addition to the standard deduction, the federal income tax code includes a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_exemption_%28United_States%29">personal exemption</a>. Together, these two are intended to prevent subsistence-level income from being taxed. In other words, Congress intended to shelter the lowest rungs of society from taxation.<br /><br />Now, obviously, the richer you get the less you need the personal exemption...when you make $200,000/year there is no risk of not being able to afford to eat. Accordingly, the IRS phased-out the amount of the personal exemption one could claim on their federal taxes as their income increased. For example, in 2009, the personal exemption was $3,650 but, for couples filing jointly whose adjusted gross income exceeded $372,700 the personal exemption was reduced to $2,433.<br /><br />It is only a $1,217 difference, which at the maximum marginal tax rate would only amount to a little over $400 per person. Hardly a drop in the bucket for a couple making $372,700/year.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgeJLgpunL_9DfwVolsbjczq9uE2gL9vQmNqCY_upqNsVWHzdhQqnt7UTYV_mt_IQzdyOhSgIBtF4TqoCnrdjFXM84lqGJRPl9HaOSH2IpUVC6phR6Y-0iWHo3c6ArcEibkPUPVqQfzc/s1600/monopoly2.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgeJLgpunL_9DfwVolsbjczq9uE2gL9vQmNqCY_upqNsVWHzdhQqnt7UTYV_mt_IQzdyOhSgIBtF4TqoCnrdjFXM84lqGJRPl9HaOSH2IpUVC6phR6Y-0iWHo3c6ArcEibkPUPVqQfzc/s320/monopoly2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592348996235288834" border="0" /></a><br />But the <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/press/press-resources-pep.cfm">personal exemption phaseout</a> was eliminated under President Bush's 2001 tax reforms...effective 2010. Besides ignoring the intent of the personal exemption, were the richest 1% of Americans really hurting for $400?<br /><br />Fortunately, this is one tax cut for the rich that won't be sticking around: the budget proposals for 2011 <a href="http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/26118.html">restore the personal exemption phaseout</a>. I hope they spent their one-time $400 windfall wisely.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-7704592878619971292011-04-01T09:49:00.005-07:002011-04-01T10:22:41.523-07:00It is hard being richAs Republican Representative Sean Duffy reminds us, it is hard to live on almost 200 grand a year:<br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cAAtSVQyXZU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />I guess that is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700097.html">why the ultra-rich need to pay a lower tax rate than the rest of us</a>...it must be tough at the top.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-23399891293687498052011-03-16T22:48:00.005-07:002011-03-20T12:15:15.660-07:00Yet Another Mortgage EstimatorThe New York Times has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html">a really slick rent-versus-buy calculator</a>; that site has everything you need to compare renting versus taking on a mortgage. I can't recommend it it highly enough.<br /><br />One thing that the New York Times' calculator confirms is that renting is always better than buying in Silicon Valley. You would need to stay in the same house for about 40 years before it became cheaper than renting for the same period of time.<br /><br />But "wait!", you say, " you are just throwing your money away when you rent." That is true. But it turns out that housing prices are so high in Silicon Valley, that you actually throw away <i>more</i> money in interest when you take on a mortgage to buy a house (or condo even).<br /><br />It is at this point someone helpfully adds, "but you can deduct interest from your taxes".<br /><br />So the questions are:<ol><li>How much money do you "throw away" paying mortgage?</li><li>And, how much of that do you "get back" from Uncle Sam via the federal mortgage interest deduction tax break?</li></ol><br />The first is pretty easy to answer; any loan amortization table will tell you how much interest you pay given a loan amount, interest rate, and number of years you'll be borrowing the money. The second is a little more complicated. Let me explain:<br /><br />The federal mortgage interest deduction is just that: it allows you to deduct the amount of money you paid in mortgage interest from your income for that year. In other words, it is as if you never made that money. So, if you earn $60,000 in gross income and pay $12,000 in mortgage interest, Uncle Sam will pretend you only earned $48,000 for the sake of calculating your federal income tax.<br /><br />That wouldn't mean that you get $12,000 off your federal income tax, though; it just reduces the amount of income you have to pay tax on. Meanwhile, you only get to deduct the mortgage interest if you itemize your deductions. This means more work for you in preparing your taxes, but more importantly, it means that you have to give up the "standard deduction". The standard deduction is the amount that everyone is entitled to deduct from their gross income; but you can't take both the standard deduction <b>and</b> an itemized deduction at the same time. So you only want to take an itemized deduction if it would be greater than your standard deduction. For a married couple filing jointly the <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-11-12.pdf">standard deduction in 2011</a> will be $11,600.<br /><br />Going back to the previous example, if you paid $12,000 in mortgage interest you could itemize your deductions and reduce your taxable income by $12,000 or you could not itemize and take the standard deduction of $11,600. With a hypothetical $60,000 of gross income, itemizing would bring your taxable income down to just $48,000 versus $48,400 without itemizing. Obviously, in this case, the itemized deduction leaves less of your money subject to federal tax, so you would want to take that. But it should also be clear that the benefit of the federal mortgage interest deduction is not really $12,000 since, if you didn't have a mortgage, you could still deduct $11,600. So the tax break is really worth the difference between an itemized deduction and the standard deduction...or just $400. But it isn't worth $400 either because it just means that $400 less of your money is taxed; at $60,000 your marginal tax rate would be 15% so the difference in tax is just $400 x 15%, or $60.<br /><br />That's right, the federal income tax break on $12,000 of mortgage interest is a whopping $60.<br /><br />The value of the deduction depends on your taxable income and the amount of mortgage interest you pay each year. The amount of mortgage interest you pay goes down as you pay back principle so the value of the tax break also goes down each year.<br /><br />Anyway, I think you get the idea...calculating the value of the federal mortgage interest deduction isn't trivial. Basically, you have to do your taxes twice, once itemizing to take the mortgage interest deduction and again with the standard deduction, each year, in order to calculate the total value of the tax break.<br /><br />So I made my own mortgage estimator that approximates the value of the mortgage interest deduction and, factoring that number in, tells you how much money you actually "throw away" on mortgage interest. It also amortizes the after-tax-break interest over the number of months you plan to live in the house, which yields a number comparable to the amount you would "throw away" on rent.<br /><br />My calculator is here: <a href="http://mortgage-estimator.appspot.com/">http://mortgage-estimator.appspot.com/</a>.<br /><br />The <kbd>Loan Amount</kbd>, <code>Interest Rate</code>, and <code>Term</code> fields are used to calculate the amortization table for the mortgage and hopefully are self-explanatory. You can also input the loan amount by entering the <code>Home Price</code> and <code>Down Payment</code>; in which case, how much equity you are putting down is displayed next to the <code>Down Payment</code> as a percentage.<br /><br />The <code>Gross Income</code>, <code>Filing Status</code>, and <code>Children</code> (actually, dependents) fields are used to estimate your federal tax obligations. The tax estimator is pretty simple; it doesn't know anything about the more obscure deductions nor does it handle investment income, but I believe it is sufficient for its purpose in comparing your hypothetical tax obligation with and without the mortgage deduction.<br /><br />Finally, the <code>Expected Residency</code> field is an acknowledgement that none of us are likely to live in the same house for the rest of our lives; here you can enter the number of years you expect to live in the home. This is important in the "how much money am I throwing away in interest" calculation because mortgage interest -- like all loan interest -- is front-end loaded. You pay more interest at the beginning of your loan and more principle towards the end. So the fewer years you live in the house before you sell it, the higher your paid interest-to-principle ratio will be.<br /><br />And now for the minutia:<ul><li>All numbers are rounded when they are displayed. So $31.586 will be displayed as $31.59 and $16.134 will be displayed as $16.13; their difference is $15.452 so will be displayed as $15.45 not $15.46. Not that you should expect this <i>estimator</i> to be accurate to the penny anyway.</li><br /><li>The estimator does not currently take into account <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenders_mortgage_insurance">private mortgage insurance</a> nor <a href="http://hud.gov/buying/loans.cfm">FHA loan assistance programs</a>.</li><br /><li>The estimator does not currently take into account state taxes and any possible state-specific home ownership incentives.</li></ul>Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-84461777293204090842011-03-14T14:26:00.002-07:002011-03-14T15:00:02.688-07:00More TSA lunacyAs if the TSA's gratuitous strip-searches at the airport weren't enough, they've branched out into train travel too. You know, in case someone gets the bright idea of highjacking a train and running it into a skyscraper. But seriously, <a href="http://m.gizmodo.com/5768805/tsa-harasses-9+yo-boy-and-other-train-passengers-after-their-trip">groping people as they get off the train</a>? What could the logic possibly be? Certainly not safety: the trip had already concluded incident-free.<br /><br />We are paying perverts to do nothing of value.<br /><br />So this is what it has come to? The American taxpayer shells out <a href="http://travel.usatoday.com/alliance/flights/boardingarea/post/2011/03/Flying-With-Fish---TSA8217s-Budget-8230-can-they-justify-it/147071/1">8.1 billion dollars a year</a> to get felt up by strangers while <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700113903/PBS-faces-new-threat-in-federal-budget.html">our lawmakers fight to kill Big Bird to save 451 million dollars</a>. I'd like to actually meet the people who think paying perverts to feel up law-abiding people <b>after</b> they demonstratively proved they are no threat is a better use of our tax dollars than, well, anything.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-8015281302205668302011-02-03T12:15:00.006-08:002011-03-13T20:45:26.926-07:00Dear AmtrakDear Amtrak,<br /><br /> A bus is not a train. If I wanted to take a bus, I'd go to <a href="http://www.greyhound.com/">greyhound.com</a> and plan my trip. But I didn't; I went to <a href="http://www.amtrak.com/">amtrak.com</a> because I wanted to plan a <i>train</i> trip. To that end, I want:<ol><li>A list of actual train stations, not bus terminals</li><li>A map of train routes and their transfer points</li><li>An option on your trip planner to <b>not</b> include bus routes</li></ol><br /> Look, I'm not stupid; I realize you can't stop in every city. But I don't expect you to. If I'm planning a cruise, I can go to <a href="http://www.carnival.com">carnival.com</a>, and they provide me a list of departure ports to choose from. They don't claim to service Omaha, Nebraska and, when I choose Omaha, offer a trip that includes a bus to New Orleans. But that is exactly what your retarded web site does when I try to plan a train trip.<br /><br /> So, please Amtrak, don't make it so damn hard to use your service. With the TSA intent on ogling and fondling our wives and children, you've got a great chance to win the business of <a href="http://wewontfly.com/">concerned middle-class citizens</a>. President Obama even threw you a bone in his <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address">State of the Union address</a>. But here's a newsflash: while train travel can compensate for being slow by being nostalgic, bus travel is slow, uncomfortable, and generally un-cool.<br /><br /> So quit hiding behind the transport of last resort, the bus, and take a page from the cruise lines: some of us are as interested in the trip as we are in the destination.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637631607249418081.post-71017384872143747682010-12-02T19:11:00.008-08:002010-12-02T21:42:33.885-08:00Personal income taxes and job creationWith elections over, the issue of whether to extend the Bush-era personal income tax cuts to families earning over $250,000 a year is back in the news. Currently, there is a 33% tax bracket that affects income in excess of $209,250 and a 35% tax bracket for income in excess of $372,950 (for joint filers). So, in effect, under the Democratic proposal, a new tax bracket will be created between the two existing brackets like so:<br /><br /><table border="1" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>33%</td><td>$209,250-$250,000</td></tr><tr><td>36%</td><td>$250,000-$373,650</td></tr><tr><td>39.6%</td><td>$373,650+</td></tr></table><br /><br />The exact numbers may still change as the details are worked out, but bear with me.<br /><br />The Republicans are currently pushing to extend the Bush-era personal income tax cuts to families earning over $1,000,000 a year or extend them to everyone. If this were to come to pass, again an extra tax bracket would be created, but it would look something like:<br /><br /><table border="1" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>33%</td><td>$209,250-$373,650</td></tr><tr><td>35%</td><td>$373,650-$1,000,000</td></tr><tr><td>39.6%</td><td>$1,000,000+</td></tr></table><br /><br />Again, the exact numbers aren't all that important. For the sake of example, though, let's look at a scenario of a family making a cool half-a-million dollars a year in personal income. Currently, this family would be paying approximately $141,563 in federal income tax (assuming the standard deduction of $10,700 for 2010). <br /><br /><table border="1" cellspacing="1"><tr><th>Bracket</th><th>Range</th><th>Dollars Taxed<br>in this Bracket</th><th>Tax Amount</th></tr><tr><td>10%</td><td>$0 – $16,750</td><td align="right">$16,750</td><td align="right">$1,675.00</td></tr><tr><td>15%</td><td>$16,751 – $68,000</td><td align="right">$51,250</td><td align="right">$7,687.50</td></tr><tr><td>25%</td><td>$68,001 – $137,300</td><td align="right">$69,300</td><td align="right">$17,325.00</td></tr><tr><td>28%</td><td>$137,301 – $209,250</td><td align="right">$71,950</td><td align="right">$20,146.00</td></tr><tr><td>33%</td><td>$209,251 – $373,650</td><td align="right">$164,400</td><td align="right">$54,252.00</td></tr><tr><td>35%</td><td>$373,651 +</td><td align="right">$115,650</td><td align="right">$40,477.50</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="right">Total:</td><td align="right">$489,300</td><td align="right">$141,563.00</td></tr></table><br />Wow, that's a big number. It is funny to think we're having all this argument over people earning so much money that their taxes are triple what the average American grosses in a year.<br /><br />Anyway, our poor put-out example family is paying $141,563 out of their $500,000 annual income in federal income tax. That is an effective tax rate of 28.3%.<br /><br />Under the Republicans' proposed plan, there would be no change in the amount of federal income tax paid by our hypothetical family since they earn less than 1 million dollars a year.<br /><br />Under the Democrats' proposed plan, our hypothetical family would have to pay $150,592 in tax, which is 30.1% of their income.<br /><br /><table border="1" cellspacing="1"><tr><th>Bracket</th><th>Range</th><th>Dollars Taxed<br>in this Bracket</th><th>Tax Amount</th></tr><tr><td>10%</td><td>$0 – $16,750</td><td align="right">$16,750</td><td align="right">$1,675.00</td></tr><tr><td>15%</td><td>$16,751 – $68,000</td><td align="right">$51,250</td><td align="right">$7,687.50</td></tr><tr><td>25%</td><td>$68,001 – $137,300</td><td align="right">$69,300</td><td align="right">$17,325.00</td></tr><tr><td>28%</td><td>$137,301 – $209,250</td><td align="right">$71,950</td><td align="right">$20,146.00</td></tr><tr><td>33%</td><td>$209,251 – $250,000</td><td align="right">$40,750</td><td align="right">$13,447.50</td></tr><tr><td>36%</td><td>$250,001 – $373,650</td><td align="right">$123,650</td><td align="right">$44,514.00</td></tr><tr><td>39.6%</td><td>$373,651 +</td><td align="right">$115,650</td><td align="right">$45,797.40</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="right">Total:</td><td align="right">$489,300</td><td align="right">$150,592.40</td></tr><br /></table><br /><br />So the difference between the two proposals amounts to a 1.8% tax increase in this example. With a little hand-waving, let's just say the argument is over a 2% tax increase affecting families earning between $250,000 and $1,000,000 a year.<br /><br />The Republicans <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/02/lawmakers-negotiate-tax-cuts-house-plans-vote/">claim that this tax will curb job creation</a>. In response to the vote in the House of Representatives approving of the Democrat's proposal, Republican representative Gary Miller of California issued a statement saying<blockquote>During these difficult economic times, raising taxes on any American family or small business will not help our economy recover nor foster the private-sector job growth needed to achieve economic recovery. The only thing that Democrats have accomplished by today's vote is yet more uncertainty for our nation's job creators.</blockquote><br /><br />Certainly, no one will argue that the U.S. could use more jobs. But is a 2% personal income tax increase going to materially affect job creation? Returning to the example above, a small business owner making $500,000 a year would see a difference of about $9000 in their take-home pay. That isn't enough to create even one job.<br /><br />In any event, this ignores the elephant in the room: the issue being debated is a tax rate on <i>personal</i> income tax, not corporate tax. Why would a business owner pay out income from their business to themselves, incurring personal income tax, only to reinvest that money into their business? Wouldn't it make more sense to create those jobs using *before* tax dollars? And that is what any business owner can do -- and is doing -- right now, under the current tax law. And what they'll be able to continue doing no matter what happens with regards to <i>personal</i> income tax.<br /><br />So it is patently silly to think that a decrease of any kind in the personal income tax is going to affect job creation. The money that creates jobs isn't taxed. You don't get lower than a zero percent tax rate. Businesses are not directly affected by the personal income tax rate.<br /><br />No, the Republicans' cherished 2% tax cut on families making more than $250,000 a year only helps wealthy people put more money in their pockets. At best, businesses may benefit indirectly by virtue of the fact that wealthy people have more disposable income.Kelly Yanceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08648597728708472240noreply@blogger.com2