Kevin Correia

Book Review: Moonwalking with Einstein

Kevin — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:22:34 +0000

It’s a typical November rainy day in Vancouver. But it doesn’t feel like it. Something feels out of place. Actually, everything feels out of place. I approach my apartment building near Metrotown and notice there is a (1) grizzly bear passed out next to the apartment entrance. His thick fur is soaked from the rain. I can see that he tried to claw his way into my building to seek shelter from the rain. He probably gave up as he grew tired. I sneak my way into the building without waking him up. As I make my way across the front lobby, I walk past a curious fish tank. The (2) fish don’t have any eyes. When I moved into the building it was a novelty, but now I don’t think much of it. I walk to my suite door and come across two large bags of (3) beans. The kind you buy at Costco. Someone must have left them at my door. I cautiously enter my suite since I hear noise inside. I decide to investigate the kitchen first. On the left counter I see vegetables surrounding a charismatic (4) mushroom as he entertains them with his singing and jokes. On the right I see (5) three tomatoes inhabiting my toaster oven. One of them has just been crushed into a ketchup-like texture. I peek into my living room and see a (6) koala bear on my couch streaming the 2010 (7) World Cup on my 27” iMac. Having seen enough I head off to work to visit one of the local (8) dams for a project. I start my car and open the parking lot (9) fence. I drive past the garbage dumpster as the (10) seagulls have their lunch. Everything was out of place.

The story I just shared with you never happened. It’s a story I created to memorize some corny jokes. I could have chosen to memorize the jokes by repeating them to myself, or perhaps writing them out on paper, but I decided to try an Ancient Greek technique called method of loci. Better known as the memory palace. I learnt this technique in a mind shattering book called Moonwalking with Einstein by Josh Foer. (In case you are wondering, I came across the book from Bill Gates’ top reads for 2012).

We live in an era that assumes we know more today than yesteryear, and with this flawed paradigm you would expect that the ancient cultures knew very little in comparison to today. Josh Foer proves this worldview wrong with his book. People in the Ancient World didn’t have access to paper, books, the Internet, or smartphones. They needed to use a proven system to remember things – which is what the memory palace did.

What exactly is a memory palace? Think of a memory palace as a file cabinet for images. You create vivid memorable images that relate what you need to remember and stage them into rooms you can visualize from real life (experts can create fake memory palaces).

For example, imagine your childhood home. This is a place you know intimately. The colour of the walls. The temperature of the floors. The cigarette burns in the sofa. The arrangement of the furniture. The lighting in each room. It is a good starting point if you are looking to use this technique. Let’s say you need to remember a grocery list for your student diet:

milk
onions
potato chips

Picture a cow that feasts on some Sugar Crisp cereal after it has spilled onto the kitchen floor. You see your mom by the kitchen sink crying hysterically, but you aren’t sure if it is because of the spilled cereal or the onions she is chopping. You hop over to the living room to see a bag of humanoid potato chips eating chips from his own bag as he watches TV. He asks you if you have a staring problem. This is quite a silly technique, but after reading this book I’d imagine the next time you are at the grocery store you’d have no problem remembering my short grocery list.

People who compete in memory competitions use the memory palace as a platform for remembering everything – from memorizing random digits to a deck of shuffled cards. There are additional techniques you can layer onto the system, such as assigning a Person Action Object (PAO) image for numbers between 00-99. For example, my personal PAO system can have the number 60 can be President Kennedy smoking a Cuban cigar. If I needed to remember the number 60, I can simply visualize JFK smoking a Cuban as he knocks furiously on my front door. The PAO allows you to distill a string of six digits into a single image by combining the person from the first PAO, with the action from the second PAO, and the object from the third PAO.

I can go on more explaining more memory palace techniques, but you are better off reading the actual book.

In case you are curious, I’ve listed out the corny jokes that relate to my introduction story. Try storing them in your own memory palace. The funny thing about memory is that if I were to ask you to repeat the 10 jokes in a week without aid, you would not be able to remember the full list. But if I were to repeat the jokes you would remember which jokes I had told you. Just a thought. Enjoy!

What do you call a bear in the rain? A drizzly bear.
What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh.
What did the bean say to the other bean? How’s it bean?
What does everyone want to hangout with the mushroom? Because he’s a fungi.
What did the father tomato say to the baby tomato while on a family walk? Ketchup.
What did the koala bear say in the job interview? I have all of the koalifications.
How do you light up a soccer stadium? With a soccer match.
What does a fish say when he hits a wall? Dam.
Why do they put fences around graveyard? Everyone is dying to get in.
Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they’d be called bagels.

Are low interest balance transfers with fees worth it?

Kevin — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:55:29 +0000

In 2008 I began to receive low interest balance transfer cheques from my credit card companies. At the time I had student debt at a high interest rate, so using them was a no-brainer. The offer was simple too: I would transfer a balance onto my credit card, and for 6 months I would have a low interest loan. No balance transfer fees, no limits, no gimmicks. In hindsight, the timing of these balance transfers were strategic. From 2007-2008 capital markets were experiencing the credit crunch, and since then whenever there have been hiccups in the credit markets, especially with the European sovereign debt crisis, these banks have been keen to send me low interest balance transfers.

Credit card companies have become more creative in their approach to entice balance transfers:

Every November since 2009 AMEX sends me a promotional offer where if I purchase anything with my AMEX between November and February, I can carry a balance with no interest until May. A smart move to ensure I do my expensive Christmas shopping on my AMEX. It works every year.
A low or zero interest rate balance transfer has become more common with AMEX and RBC, but with a 1.00% balance transfer fee.

The problem with a low interest balance transfer with a transfer fee is that customers are likely to make financial decisions based on stated interest rates and neglect the cost of the balance transfer fee. What customers need to do, and what RBC has likely done, is calculate an effective interest rate from the stated annual rate and the balance transfer fee.

In the following graphs I have plotted some promotional rates I have received to compare against the rates for standard line of credit accounts.

We see that the effective interest rate is an exponential function. It is possible that a low interest balance transfer has a higher effective interest rate than a LOC, especially if the loan is held for a short period of time. Strangely enough, RBC had sent me a promo for 1.99% from January 2012 until April 2013, followed by a 0% offer from May 2012 until December 2012. If the time horizon for these loans were both 6-7 months, either offer is roughly equivalent, but behind that timeframe the 1.99% offer with no balance transfer fee would save you more money.

The same logic goes for the kinds of promotions retailers offer, where if you buy at least $500 in merchandise, you will be entitled to no interest and/or no payments for a specified time. They seem to be most common with laptops and computers for back-to-school specials. These promotions always have an administration fee. I would guess most consumers do not view of as an interest rate, but if customers want to be prudent with their money they should treat it as one.

I haven’t stopped dreaming

Kevin — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:16:04 +0000

A couple of weeks ago a friend posted an interesting video on Facebook:

It’s narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, speaking about how the US feared the rise of the USSR and created NASA to engage in the Space Race. NASA was able to land on the Moon within 10 years, but as the Soviets fell behind, NASA began to lose its glory. Tyson believes that the US is losing its status on the world stage, and without NASA pushing the boundaries of space we could lose a generation of inspired scientists and engineers. Then it struck me. At 4:03 a video clip of Carl Sagan appears talking to school children. It was at this moment that I realized that my life had been touched by Carl Sagan in a profound way.

Where’s the connection?

In Grade 3 I discovered a children’s science book series about the Solar System in the library at St. Anne’s in Brampton. If I were to walk in the same library I could tell you which shelf and section you could find the books. There was a book on each planet, the Sun, the moons of Mars, the asteroid belt, and comets. I read each book, wrote what I learnt in my journal, but the book on Venus is the one that fascinated me the most.

I don’t remember many details about what I read, but there is one idea that has managed to withstand almost 20 years of “memory erosion”. Terraforming of Venus. Venus is a planet cloaked in a thick blanket of CO₂. A lethal sauna. Life as we know it is impossible on Venus, but the book proposed that we could have artificial satellites orbit Venus containing engineered microbes. These microbes would convert CO₂ to O₂ in Venus’ atmosphere, reduce the greenhouse effect, and create organic acids on Venus. The idea originated from Carl Sagan in 1961, who later admitted the idea was flawed. By today’s standards his idea to transform Venus’ atmosphere is science fiction, but since I read this book as a child it was and still is science to me.

I haven’t quite become the astronaut or aerospace engineer I wanted to be as a child. Instead life has somehow pushed and pulled me to pursue chemical engineering, and more recently metabolic engineering with my Masters program. I now find myself in a field that is looking to unravel 4 billion years worth of R&D done by Mother Nature, which one day I hope we can use to terraform Venus or Mars. I can’t help but wonder what my life would be like if it weren’t for those science books in my elementary school.

I haven’t stopped dreaming. Have you?

How much is an Air Mile worth?… and why you should opt out of the Air Miles Cash Program

Kevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:22:37 +0000

Countless people collect Air Miles, and other reward miles, but I wonder if enough people are asking how much are the damn points worth. The simple answer is that it depends.

If you redeem your Air Miles for a $20 fuel certificate at Shell:
1 Air Mile = 11.4 cents.

If you redeem your Air Miles for a 2 GB iPod Shuffle:
1 Air Mile = 5.8 cents

What gives?

Air Miles, and other reward programs, are marketing companies that try to bend consumer behaviour for their own benefit. Sometimes it can benefit the consumer, but I think that usually not the case. Air Miles has two opportunities it can take take advantage of you, the humble points collector.

The Earning Phase: where you collect your Air Miles
The Redemption Phase: what you do with your Air Miles

The Earning Phase

Air Miles and similar companies benefit when you go out of your way to buy overpriced milk at a specific grocery store just because it offers you Air Miles. Or drive an extra mile to fill up your gas tank at Shell. The extra money you spend usually isn’t worth the Air Mile you get, but that is easily cloaked behind the joy getting “free points”. When I worked as a cashier at Sport Chek I remember some customers wouldn’t have enough merchandise to meet the $20 threshold to collect 1 Air Mile, so they often buy a cheap item like a chocolate bar just so they could bring a subtotal from $19.99 to $20.98. If it isn’t obvious, these customers spent an extra $1 to receive a point worth 10 cents.

The Redemption Phase

Now that you have a collection of unused points, Air Miles can again profit from consumer behaviour by adjusting how much points it costs to redeem certain items. In the previous example of the iPod Shuffle and Shell fuel certificate, Air Miles benefits if you choose the iPod shuffle. The retail value of an iPod Shuffle is $56.49, which can be redeemed for 975 Air Miles. On the other hand, you could redeem 875 Air Miles, out of your 975 AM’s, to get five $20 Shell fuel certificates. That’s a retail value of $100 in gasoline. If you really wanted an iPod Shuffle, you could in fact redeem 875 Air Miles for the Shell fuel certificates, and use the money you didn’t spend on gas to buy TWO iPods. Not ONE, but TWO. Simply put, buying gasoline with reward points is boring. Saving up thousands of Air Miles for a “free” vacation to the Caribbean on the other hand, that sounds exciting. At one point I was guilty of hoarding Air Miles because I wanted to redeem them for an expensive gadget, but when I did the math, it just didn’t make sense. The table below summarizes some popular items and the value you would get out of your Air Miles (all prices include Ontario HST).

In March 2012, Air Miles is introducing a new program called Air Miles Cash – essentially another lever it can use to profit from consumers in the redemption phase. It took me a while to understand this silly idea. If you earn 1 Air Mile you have the option of depositing it into a piggybank called Air Miles Cash, Air Miles Dream, or both. Air Miles Cash allows you to redeem your miles instantly at the checkout counter for specific merchants like Shell and Pharma Plus, without the need for ordering and waiting for your reward in the mail. Air Miles Dream allows you to continue redeeming your miles for items in the rewards collection like gift cards, TV’s, cameras, kitchen supplies, etc.

The problem with this program is that the value of an Air Mile Cash is not equal to an Air Mile Dream reward. We already saw that the value of an Air Mile Dream can range from 5.8-11.4 cents depending on what you get. However, the value of an Air Mile Cash is easier to calculate. You redeem 90 Air Miles at the counter to save $10 off your purchase. That works out to 10.5 cents / Air Mile – a roughly 8% reduction in value compared to Air Miles Dream.

Reward programs are great, but they should never be an absolute incentive for you to go out of your way to an item at a particular store. And when you do have a hoard of points, think twice about what you redeem them for.

Air Miles Value based on Rewards

Reward		Reward Miles	Value	$ / Airmile
	$20 Shell Fuel Certificate (Redeemed as a dream reward)	175	$20.00	$0.114
	$10 Shell Fuel Cash Rewards (Redeemed instantly as a cash reward)	95	$10.00	$0.105
	$25 GAP Gift Card	220	$25.00	$0.114
	$50 HBC Gift Card	440	$50.00	$0.114
	BOSE Audio	2575	$282.49	$0.110
	BOSE Audio	2000 +$80 cash	$202.49 + $80.00	$0.099
	GE Stainless Steel Over the Range Microwave	5500	$508.49	$0.092
	GE Stainless Steel Over the Range Microwave	4400 + $165 cash	$343.49 + net $165	$0.078
	iPod Shuffle 2 GB	975	$56.49	$0.058
	iPod nano 8 GB	1575	$146.89	$0.093
	iPod nano 16 GB	1850	$169.49	$0.092
	iPod Touch 8 GB	2175	$225.99	$0.104
	iPod Touch 32 GB	3100	$338.99	$0.109
	iPod Touch 64 GB	3975	$451.99	$0.114
	iPod Classic 160 GB	2675	$282.49	$0.106
	Nikon D3100 with 18-55 mm	5900	$621.49	$0.105
	Panasonic VIERA 50" 1080p HD Plasma	9625	$847.47	$0.088

Introduction to the El Nino and La Nina Climate Phenomena

Kevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:13:03 +0000

Growing up I remember the days when we would get +30 cm of snow overnight in Toronto, as well as the mild winters and its miserable rain. Some memorable winters include December 1999 when I remember waking up to 40 cm of snow, December 2006 when my cousin from the Azores visited during Christmas to witness one of the most mild winters I had seen, and the 2007-2008 winter when Toronto received record snowfall. It may seem like Mother Nature has a way of flipping a coin between winters with rain and snow, but it turns out there is a phenomena that causes some winters to be cold, while other be warm. It’s called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.

El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short, is a short-term climate pattern that causes abnormal conditions around the world. Depending on the time of year and location, a region may experience colder, warmer, drier, or wetter conditions than usual. It’s affects are felt across North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. Below are maps illustrating the regions impacted by the ENSO.

El Nino

La Nina

Sea Surface Temperature

The driving force for the ENSO phenomena is sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean. The surface temperature in the ocean is far from constant, which can be seen in the figure below. Colder than normal temperatures in equatorial Pacific lead to La Nina episodes, whereas warmer than usual temperature lead to El Nino episodes.

Meteorologists use the Oceanic Nino Index (ONI) as a measure of how Strong an El Nino or La Nina episode is. The ONI is calculated as the difference between the current ocean temperature and the historical average. Measuring the average surface temperature of the ocean can be challenging, so meteorologists use two techniques to smooth out fluctuations:

They calculate the average temperature anomaly over a defined regions in the Pacific Ocean – Nino1+2, Nino 3, Nino 3.4, Nino 4
They calculate a 3 month running average

The Oceanic Nino Index

The historical ONI is shown over the last several decades. ONI values above 0.5 are defined as El Nino phases, while values less than -0.5 indicate its La Nina counterpart. El Nino and La Nina can further be categorized as weak, moderate, and strong, but I wasn’t able to find consistent values that define these ranges. Remember who I said my cousin visited Canada during a fairly mild winter? That is the red peak in the ONI for 2007. Similarly, the 1999 and 2008 winters with large snowfall are the blue troughs in the ONI graph.

Currently we are in a La Nina phase, and this can be seen with the current 3 month outlook below, as issued by the Climate Prediction Center (NOAA). BC is expected to have colder temperatures and more precipitation. Toronto on the other hand is expected to have more rain and a higher probability of warmer temperatures.

Now that we appreciate an understanding of the ENSO, we can begin looking at its impact on snowfall at Whistler.

La Nina and its Effects on Snow Conditions at Whistler-Blackcomb

Kevin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:58:19 +0000

When I was living in BC I remember getting an email from Whistler-Blackcomb promoting their EDGE card before the ski season had even begun. It’s almost expected they would send an email to me, as I went the year before, but the unexpected thing about this email was they referenced the La Nina phenomena as reason to expect more-than-average snow fall for the season. I always thought the El Nino/La Nina climate phenomena was unknown to most people, but here was a ski resort trying to profit off it from the public.

Another epic season of snow is expected at Whistler Blackcomb as meteorologists are once again predicting a La Niña winter for the 2011.2012 ski season. For Western Canada, the La Niña weather pattern typically means cooler than normal temperatures and consistent heavy precipitation during the winter months. Last season, these ideal conditions resulted in near record breaking snowfall at Whistler Blackcomb. With a total accumulation of 1579 centimetres or 51.8 feet, the 2010.2011 winter was the second snowiest season on record, bringing the annual snowfall average up to1042 centimetres or 34.1 feet…

Two questions arise which I will hopefully answer in this post:

What impact does the La Nina phenomena, or more broadly, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have on BC climate?
How reliable of an indicator is the ENSO for snowfall at Whistler?

If you are not familiar with El Nino/La Nina, I have written an introduction article.

1. What impact does La Nina have on BC Climate?

Judging by the La Nina and El Nino regional maps shown below, we can expect the following for British Columbia / Whistler:

Colder and wetter conditions during La Nina (more snow)
Warmer conditions during El Nino (less snow, or average)

El Nino

La Nina

2. How reliable of an indicator is the ENSO for snowfall at Whistler?

I created a scatter plot to show the correlation between peak snow depth at Whistler-Blackcomb and the ONI (1991-2011). If you include La Nina, Neutral and El Nino conditions, there is effectively no correlation as seen by the correlation factor of 0.04. However, if we only include La Nina and Neutral conditions, the correlation factor is 0.52 (a moderately strong correlation).

How can we explain for this difference? The easy answer is my data set is relatively small, but we should go back to what impacts the ENSO has on Western Canada.

La Nina results in colder and wetter winters. This means snow may begin accumulating in Whistler earlier (normal rain falls as snow due to the cold), and we can expect more snow (due to the wetness).
El Nino results in warmer winters, but this does not mean drier winters or less snow accumulation at Whistler. Given that the highest lift at Whistler is located 2000 m above sea level, the warmer temperatures in an El Nino phase may not be enough to cause precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow at Whistler. This may not be the case for the local ski mountains in Vancouver which sit at a lower elevation. During the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver, Cypress Mountain had a lower than average snow base which has often been attributed to El Nino.

Conclusion

In summary, it looks like La Nina conditions may result in more than average snowfall at Whistler, but its El Nino counter partner does not necessarily lead to less snowfall. Given the limited data set, it’s hard to say if these results are truly statistically significant. But for now it looks like it is hard to ignore.

Data disclaimer

Snow depth values were taken from Whistler’s website: http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/stats/index.htm
Normal snow depth was defined by a confidence interval with 1 standard deviation.
The ONI values used in the plots were the averages for November-February of the season. This is often the peak of La Nina and El Nino episodes.
The most common index for ENSO seems to be the ONI (difference in current ocean temperature vs average ocean temperature). Another measure is the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI). Along with sea temperature differences, it combines additional factors such as sea-level pressure, surface air temperature, and cloudiness fraction of the sky. It may lead to a more accurate correlation between ENSO and snow depth at Whistler.

What are the Best Chocolate Bars? An analysis by a indecisive chocolate lover

Kevin — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:27:32 +0000

Sometimes I get tempted for an afternoon snack and find myself struggling to choose ONE chocolate bar in a convenience store. I want them all. Mars bar, Caramilk, Wunderbar, Coffee Crisp. Choosing a chocolate bar is usually the most difficult decision I face everyday.

I decided to buy a slew of chocolates and analyse them to eliminate the anguish I get when buying chocolate bars. Here is what I think…

The Analysis


	Bounty is a sweet full coconut flavour chocolate bar covered in a thin milk chocolate layer. More coconut than chocolate. This isn’t a chocolate bar. It is a coconutbar.
F / Fail

Canada (1980?)

Eat-More is difficult to take out of wrapper, and its probably for a good reason because you don’t want to have a 2nd bite after you try it. It is extremely chewy with a delayed pique of dark toffe, and bursting with peanut flavour. This is a unique blend of ingredients. The bad kind of unique.

F / Fail


	Big Turk has an extremely chewy jelly centre. This chocolate bar is a complete scam. It offers no mention of a fruity surprise on its packaging. The only hint was its curious aroma. Any fruit flavour in a chocolate is too much. 60% less fat, 100% less taste. Least Protein, Most Carbs, Least Fat, Least Calories per gram
F / Fail

United Kingdom (1928)

Dairy Milk Fruit and Nuts is a rich chocolate taste overpowers any hint of fruit its titles suggests until all the chocolate melts in your mouth and you are left with uninspiring chewy raisins.

B / Good for the first 10 seconds, F / Fail for the last 10 seconds

United States (~1900)

Hershey’s Almonds has hard oversized almonds dispersed throughout the thin solid milk chocolate bar.
It has a bit of an odd taste for a chocolate with a company’s name.
Most Calories per gram

C / Acceptable

United States (1941)

M&M’s has a sweet crispy thin layer covering an overpowering milk chocolate centre. I’ll take Smarties over M&M’s anyday.

C / Acceptable

United States (1937)

Crunch is a solid milk chocolate dispersed with crisped rice. More bitter than sweet.

C / Acceptable

United Kingdom

Mr. Big has a soft and chewy vanilla wafer centre immersed in rice crisps, caramel and peanuts. This concoction is better on paper than real life.

B- / Good

United Kingdom (1937)

Smarties has a hard sweet coating and solid milk chocolate centre. Leaves a pleasant sweet taste in your mouth.

B- / Good

United Kingdom (1935)

Kit Kat has milk chocolate wrapped around a compact waffle centre that tastes like an antiquated chocolate. It’s sharable with your 3 closest friends, which can be good or bad.

B / Good

United States (1928)

Reese has a deep peanut butter aroma that reminds you of childhood. Its aroma seems more pleasant than its taste. Soft and chewy.

Most Protein

B / Good

Switzerland (1908)

Toblerone is solid milk chocolate with an intriguing sweet hint of honey and nuts. Offers sharing capabilities and a box for later storage.

B+ / Good

United States (1920)

Oh Henry! has an intense peanut flavour wrapped in deep caramel and chocolate fudge coating. This chocolate is bursting with crispy peanuts.
Most Protein, Most Weight

B+ / Good

United Kingdom (1935)

Aero is soft and airy milk chocolate. Simple and Tasty. Melts in your mouth.

B+ / Good

United Kingdom (1935)

Coffee Crisp has an aroma that suggests an intimate tango of chocolate and coffee, and its taste does not disappoint. It’s unfortunate this isn’t offered in the US.

A- / Amazing

United States (1932)

3 Musketeers has a crisp smooth taste that melts in your mouth. Only problem is false advertising of 3 Musketeers. The package only contains 2.

Least Calories, Least Weight, Least Carbs

A- / Amazing

United States (1932)

Butterfinger has a hard crunchy peanut centre wrapped in butter and chocolate. It has a less tendency to stick to back molars than Crispy Crunch. But also a less memorable experience.

A / Amazing

United Kingdom (1928)

Crispy Crunch has a hard crispy peanut centre that has a tendency of sticking to your back molars. This allows you to taste on the chocolate for after you have finished eating it. Crispy Crunch finds the right balance of chocolate and peanut that Reese isn’t able to conjure.

A / Amazing

United States (1930)

Snickers has an intense smooth soft peanut taste wrapped in caramel. It has the right balance of caramel, peanuts, and milk chocolate. It’s shape and taste is not far from the Mars bar.

A / Amazing

United Kingdom (1929)

Crunchie has a milk chocolate coating over a unique hard crisp sponge toffee centre. Unlike Bounty, this is the good kind of unique.

A / Amazing

United Kingdom (1967)

Twix is a soft biscuit topped with caramel and milk chocolate. You’d be glad it comes in two.

A+ / Amazing

United States (1932)

Mars has a soft chewy caramel centre that leaves your taste buds out of this world.

A+ / Amazing

United Kingdom (1976)

Wunderbar has a peanut butter core mixed with rice crisps and caramel. This is a more enlightening mixture than Mr. Big.

Most Calories, Most Fat

A+ / Amazing

Canada (1968)

Caramilk has smooth caramel encapsulated in perfect milk chocolate that wraps around your tongue. The only down side of this chocolate is that its squares entices your friends to ask for too much.

A+ / Amazing

Concluding Remarks

Fruits do not belong in chocolates.
Solid plain chocolate bars are okay. Just okay.
Peanuts and caramel make chocolates magical.

Chocolate Bar Confectioneries

I once heard from a roommate that the US does not sell any Cadbury chocoaltes. I always found it a shame that the US could not have what I thought were the world’s best chocoaltes. I calculated the grades for each, and to no surprise, Cadbury came on top with an A-.

Company	Average Grade
	A-
	B
	C+
	C-

The Ultimate Christmas Music Playlist

Kevin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:04:17 +0000

I love Christmas music. There I said it. I know my enthusiasm for Christmas music isn’t matched by the general public, but that’s okay. I am who I am. Over the last couple of years I have come to realize that people fall into different camps when it comes to their affinity to Christmas music….

The Christmas Aficionados

These are the people that listen to Christmas songs year round and aren’t afraid to show it. They make up a small fraction of the population and are known to keep Christmas lights up year round.

The Traditionalists

Most of the population are considered Traditionalists. There is some division within this fraction, but they generally define Christmas as post-Halloween (Canadian) or post-Thanksgiving (American).

The Capitalists

These are the people that take the lead from the corporate world. They get into the Christmas mood when they see and hear Christmas in shopping malls, Starbucks coffee shops, and local Santa Claus parades.

The Black Friday-ists

This sect believes the Christmas season is strongly connected with Black Friday Christmas specials.

The Weatherists

Weatherists believe that the Christmas season requires sustained sub-zero temperatures. This philosophy is extremely European-centric as it does not consider places that do not have cold temperatures: Philippines, Lebanon, Portugal. Furthermore, the Weatherist’s philosophy is also under threat from climate change.

Snow Cult

This is an extremist view that believes cold temperatures are required and snow. This contracts the conventional Weatherists which are ambivalent towards snow.

The Uptightists

These people don’t believe in listening to Christmas music. They also known to hate puppies and eat babies.

The reality is that some people are a hybrid of the categories. I would say I am a closet Christmas Aficionado, but I portray myself as a early-Traditionalist.

I have compiled a list of my favourite Christmas songs that will be on my high rotation.

I have broken the list into the following groups:

The Classics – you can’t release a Christmas album without a handful of these songs
Coming Home for Christmas – Christmas is better when you are living away from home
The Lost Love – Christmas is probably the best time to be in love
Ideal World – Christmas is a time of reflection of the past year, and hoping for a better new year
Pop – Pretty much another word for “Other” in this article
New Year’s – New Year’s gives people an excuse to listen to Christmas songs after Christmas is over

Enjoy!

(Feel free to share your favourites in the comment section below)

The Classics

Elvis – Blue Christmas

A classic Elvis song and a classic Christmas song.

Bing Crosby – It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Home Alone 2 wouldn’t be the same without this song.

Bing Crosby – White Christmas

Dean Martin – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Nat King Cole – Silent Night

Silent Night has always been my favourite Christmas song, but it wasn’t until I found Nat King Cole’s Christmas Album that my obsession with Christmas music began to flourish.

Colin James and Roxanne Potvin – Baby It’s Cold Outside

Baby it’s cold outside is another timeless song. This specific song was released last year with one of my favourite Canadian blues singer, Roxanne Potvin.

Bing Crosby – Mele Kakikimaka

First discovered this song in 2010 while I was living in BC, while I was listening to the radio during my commute. I thought it was appropriate song for BC since it doesn’t really snow in Vancouver.

Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around Christmas Tree

Bobby Helms – Jingle Bell Rock

Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick

I would bet that most recognize this as a Coca-Cola song rather than a Beach Boys song.

Pointer Sisters – Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Jose Feliciano – Feliz Navidad

Truth be told, I hate this song. But I have to listen to it because they play it everywhere.

Alice Smith – Silver Bells

Alice Smith is another one of my favourite soul singers. This song is found on complication album called The Hotel Café presents… Winter Songs. My other favourites on this album include Brandi Carlile, KT Tunstall, Fiona Apple, Holly Conlan, Colbie Caillat, Kate Havnevik, and Catherine Feeny.

Page 1      The Classics
Page 2      Coming Home for Christmas
Page 3      The Lost Love
Page 4      The Ideal World
Page 5      Pop
Page 6      New Year’s

Google vs Microsoft vs Apple vs Facebook vs RIM – The Constantly Evolving IT Landscape

Kevin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:15:26 +0000

Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev was the first to observe major reoccurring supercycles in Western capitalism. The main idea behind his theory is that every 50-60 years the economy goes through a series of phases in a certain technology: prosperity, recession, depression, and finally improvement. The lasting output from the supercycle is often companies and the infrastructure we use in our everyday lives. Think of railways. The railways we use are essentially from a hundred years ago. There are no ambitious plans to expand the current railway network in North America, just maintain it. The same goes for refineries, roads, and to a certain extent the power system.

We are currently in the midst of an information technology wave that has been growing since the 1970’s, but this K-wave has been far from a continuous rise. Within the superwave there have been a series of smaller expansions and contractions. In each wave a market behemoth emerges, but has always failed to jump to the next emerging wave in the IT industry. This is Microsoft failing to have the dominating presence Google has in search. Nokia failing to be as popular with smartphones as it was with cellphones. Google failing to make a foray into social networks with Buzz and Orkut. The future of computing lies in the confluence of social and mobile, and Google is trying to do what all previous technology companies have failed to do: make the transition to the next wave.

History of the IT sector

Take a quick look at the evolution of the IT sector:

IBM dominated mainframes
Microsoft dominated desktops (under threat from mobile computing)
Google dominated Internet (its Ad dollars under threat from social networks)
Apple is dominating mobile computing (iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macbook)
Facebook is dominating social networks

The firms listed above all display monopolistic behaviour in its home territory and the numbers speak for themselves. 90% of mainframes are sold by IBM. 90% of desktops have Windows as an OS. 75% of searches are performed by Google (they are as high as 90% in some countries). Facebook has 900 million users, while the next largest social network is Twitter with an estimated 200 million users.

The success of these companies have created platforms that locks users to a certain experience. What are these platforms? Windows is the platform for PC applications. Meaning if you want to develop an application for a PC it is likely to be Windows, not Linux. Google is the platform for Internet search and online advertising. Facebook is the platform for social interaction on the web. Apple’s iOS is the platform for mobile applications. These IT platforms are the equivalent to physical infrastructure like highways, transmission towers, and railways. It’s possible to construct another transcontinental railway, just like how Microsoft can put its resources into Bing, but everyone is already using an existing railway that works quite well, Google. Constructing a new railway only makes sense to serve niche markets, much like Wolfram Alpha.

Autocatalysis is a large part why these platforms get locked in. Autocatalysis is when a product fuels a reaction. You get Facebook because all your friends have Facebook. Your friend got Facebook because all of his friends have Facebook, etc. The same phenomena occurred with Windows, and to an extent is occurring with mobile applications on iOS. There is often a gestation period when competing platforms exist, but at a glance it appears that IT has a tendency of developing platform monopolies. At the moment mobile platforms like Android, iOS and BB may be an anomaly to this rule.

IT Battle Fronts

Sitting at the steps of the US Custom House in New York City are Daniel Chester’s Four Continents. These sculptures are bursting with symbolism describing the stereotypical view of the world at the turn of the last century, especially relating to how the French viewed the Continents role in the world:



Africa, barely robed, her eyes closed, still sleeps next to the Sphinx	Asia is impassive with eyes cast downward, her people bent in bondage, kneeling and giving obeisance.

Europe wears a crown and sits unperturbed, clothed in robes of regal status quo, holding her hands symbols of office	America is the most active of the four figures, and appears ready to rise from her seat.

I couldn’t help but notice the metaphor I saw in the technology industry. The IT sector has several battlefronts as companies compete in various Red and Blue Oceans. Some battlefronts have a company playing the role of the incumbent (Europe), while other battlefronts have the same company playing the challenger (America).

Here is a list of some of these competing fronts:

RIM’s Blackberry vs Apple’s iPhone vs Google’s Android
Facebook vs Twitter vs LinkedIn vs Google+
Google’s Adwords vs Facebook Ads vs Groupon
Microsoft’s Windows vs Google’s Chrome vs Apple’s App Store
Microsoft’s Office vs Apple’s iWork vs Google Docs

Note that Google is involved in each of these IT Battlefronts. A dangerous position to be if history is any indication. Back in WWII Hitler’s Germany was involved in a multi-front war against the World, and things didn’t turn out so well. It’s important to choose your battles wisely, and luckily Google’s Larry Page has begun to do just that after replacing Eric Schmidt. Months before passing away, Steve Jobs advised Page to focus on doing extremely well on fewer products, rather than trying to do everything under the sun.

Mobile Platforms

The Incumbent:

The Challenger:

The Past Incumbent:

The Lost Cause:

The Mobile Platform is probably the most significant IT battlefront being fought right now. Every week there are new patent lawsuits between Samsung and Apple. Patent trolls trying to make billions. There is room for dispute in this area, but here are my views:

Apple is the leader in the mobile space. It leads the industry in hardware design, has the largest app store, the sleekest OS, and the most active smartphone users when it comes to data and app usage. Google is Apple’s only serious competition at the moment. It may have the largest market share of smartphones being sold right now, but its users are not as ardent as iPhone users. RIM and Nokia are the past leaders in the mobile arena, and are dormant when you compare them to Apple or Google. Both companies are growing in developing countries like India and Brazil, but they are falling behind in North America.

Page 1      Introduction
Page 2      Social Networks
Page 3      Advertisement
Page 4      Operating System
Page 5      Office Productivity Tools
Page 6      Final Thoughts

Inkjet vs Laser Printer Costs for University Students

Kevin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:43:03 +0000

Now that I am a student again I have a compulsive need to print things. A professor sends out class notes in pdf? I need to print it. Solutions to assignments? I need to print it. An email sent out saying this week’s class is cancelled? I need to print it. The digital world only exists to please the senses of the analog world.

I previously owned an inkjet printer from high school through undergrad, but later sold it once I started working full-time at BC Hydro. This time around I thought it would be wiser to do some economical analysis on the three options I had available:

Buy an Inkjet Printer
Buy a Laser Printer
Use a UofT Printers for 15 cents per page

My roommate belongs to the philosophical camp that says buying a printer is not worth the money since you have to constantly buy new cartridges. It’s true that you have the cost of purchasing expensive cartridges, not to mention an expensive printer, but I wanted to find the printing usage that made sense to buy a laser and inkjet printer relative to using UofT’s 15 cents per page printers. I compiled a list of the cheapest printers at Futureshop (the HP inkjet and Samsung laster printer were both on sale at the time of analysis), along with the cost of OEM cartridge replacements.

	HP DeskJet 1055 All-In-One Inkjet Printer (CH347A) Printer Cost: $39.99 Cartridge Cost: $21.31 Cartridge Yield: 190 pages / cartridge
	Samsung Monochrome Laser Printer (ML-1675) Printer Cost: $51.29 Cartridge Cost: $75.65 Cartridge Yield: 1500 pages / cartridge
	Brother Monochrome Laser Printer (HL-2240D) Printer Cost: $140.57 Cartridge Cost: $74.57 Cartridge Yield: 2600 pages / cartridge

Analysis

Buying an inkjet or laser printer is economical when you print at least 9 pages per week. This assumes you are enrolled in class for the entire year. If you are only using your printer for 8 months in the fall and winter the threshold number gets raised to 14 pages per week. At 10 pages per week, Samsung’s laser printer becomes more economical than inkjet printers – the maximum price difference being 5 cents per page.

In the end, I bought the Samsung printer. An inkjet might make sense if you want to print photos or colour pictures, but the reality is I am only looking to print boring text. My only problem with my printer is that now I have less hesitation about printing stuff, which wasn’t the case when I was using UofT’s printers. We will see if this changes when I have to buy my $75 cartridge.

Notes:

The calculations are based on a 2 year life span, with no discount rate, and no salvage value.
You can get a lower price curve for inkjets if you were to have them refilled or buy non-OEM cartridges.
The printer costs include Ontario’s $5.40 environmental handling cost.
The calculations include a paper cost of 1 cent per page.
The pricing curve for the laser printer assumes the initial cartridge yields 500 pages, not 1500.