Where is the paper cutter and color printer when you need it

My neighborhood Blockbuster is due to close in April. I can’t simply express what that means to me, but because liquidation sales have turned Blockbuster into a big used DVD store, I’ve been scavenging for good deals.


Speaking from multiple experiences, liquidation sales in general start out with relatively modest discounts when inventory is abundant. During the first week, used DVDs were $8. This sounds great at first until you realize that you can find better deals online for used DVDs at places like half.com. As the weeks passed, the price of used DVDs dropped down to $6 and is now $5 (except for certain new-releases like the Social Network which are not on sale at all). $5 tends to be a sweet spot because even Amazon or half.com will have a tough time delivering you a physical DVD at that price. 


The true gem of the store is the rack of tightly packed DVDs in clear sleeves that are now on sale for $2. While the rack only occupies about 10 square feet, its density of movies is the highest in the store. Going through this rack is like a treasure hunt. In total, I’ve probably spend a couple of hours digging but because they keep it relatively full, you never know what you will find. Here is what I bought so far:


1) Frost/Nixon - This is about a televised interview with Richard Nixon after his pardon. It was expected to be superficial but turned out to be hard hitting and revolutionary. I wanted to see this but didn’t get a chance and it doesn’t hurt that it stars Frank Langella.


2) The Station Agent - This is a movie I’ve had on one of my lists of movies. I have no idea what it’s about but it had a 97% rating on rottentomatoes.com last time I checked.


3) Moliere - This is about the French playwright who wrote the comedy “The Misanthrope”. I got this because I saw a modern adaptation of that play, “The Philanthropist”.


From the normal racks of at least previously organized DVDs, I bought:


1) Taken - "They took his daughter but he will take their lives." Sounds like the start of a typical action movie but I've heard good things about it.


2) Mostly Martha - This is the only movie I’ve actually seen before. It’s falls into the category of “it’s better than the American remake” and is about a talented chef named Martha who can’t understand who is focused a bit too much on her food but suddenly needs to deal with more than she can handle in her personal life. The movie takes place mostly in and around the kitchen so if you liked Ratatouille you’ll like this too. The soundtrack is also great and the movie was almost worth the $5 just for the “Country” track by Keith Jarrett.


3) Inception - Accidentally bought what turned out to be a duplicate copy.


If you read this far, it is probably because you are wondering what any of this has to do with paper cutters and color printers. I spent some time today making and printing black and white DVD covers for the movies from the $2 rack. Blockbuster was selling empty DVD cases to go with the caseless DVDs. As much as I wanted to buy a color printer and a paper cutter, I didn't think saving a few bucks on DVDs following the close of my neighborhood DVD rental store justified such a heavy investment. While the experience was for me, uncommon, it turns out that there is enough demand for DVD cover images online for there to be several websites dedicated for sharing and distributing them. I ended up crafting my own because those websites required registration.


I just think it's ironic that people printing their own DVD covers may be making illegal copies and here I am printing DVD covers because the DVD store is going out of business. It would be an oversimplification to say that Blockbuster was not satisfying the demands of its customers. What I'm sure about is that I will miss going to my neighborhood Blockbuster.

One year later

If you are thinking of selling your first generation iPad, there are ways for you to do it simply but you won't be getting the best price. You simply enter your iPad model and condition and get a quote. Below, I'm comparing the prices eBay and Gazelle offer for the different models and don't see a huge difference in price. These prices change every day and in eBay's Instant Sale offers for iPad supposedly end on March 25th. Keep in mind this chart compares the original prices and clearance prices that Apple charges you with the prices that electronics resellers and recyclers will offer you for your used iPad without even seeing it. As a buyer or seller with some patience, you should consider asking around and checking direct sale opportunities via social networks or listing your electronics on eBay and classified ad sites like cragislist. UPDATE: I updated the chart and rewrote the post because the original was a bit misleading by implying trends. [3/20/2011]

Can the iPad 3G + Skype be cheaper than an iPhone?

Now that you can make calls from an iPhone or iPad with Skype over a cellular connection, here's a comparison between the cost of ownership for the two devices over 24 months:



Skype cannot run in the background on iPad until iPhone 4.0 is released for iPad in Fall 2010, but it's good to know that it may be possible to save $400 over two years.

We Rule dominates my life

It seems like all I do nowadays is plant crops in the hopes of running a successful feudal community in ngmoco:)'s made-for-[iPhone] Farmville / Age of Empireseque iPhone game WeRule. To be fair, the developers also make Age of Empires which came before Farmville so it's not just a clone. But as my latest crop of peas grow (apparently We Rule takes place in California where strawberries are always in season) I've taken the liberty of posting some charts to help you decide how to spend your time and "mojo" credits while in your We Rule kingdom. The first chart shows productivity as defined by Gold versus Time in minutes. Keep in mind that if you don't harvest your crops shortly after they ripen, they will whither and die so make sure you're around to harvest them in the time they mature! The second chart is Credits versus Mojo. You can use mojo earned while leveling up to instantly grow crops, but use them wisely! Maximize the number of credits per Mojo with this chart so you don't have to spend your actual dollars buying six packs, carafes, flasks, or 100-year vintage bottles of Mojo (not kidding) which run you from five to fifty dollars!

Cardboard? No. Delicious? Yes.

From Food Stream

Differences between Arial and Helvetica

I posted a comparison a while back but got them mixed up. Here's a comparison of a couple of characteristic letters: One more:

Updated 200810230005

So that's what we did!

It's a little embarrassing to only fully appreciate the distinction of investment banks when they're about to become obsolete. They borrowed money worth 20-30 times the value of their liquid assets in order to run their risky operations and if they didn't go out of business usually reaped huge profits at the end of the quarter. This was possible and sanctioned because what they were risking was their own necks as well as those of their faithful creditors with just the appetite for risk.

Now that those creditors are no longer willing to let investment banks play with their money, investment banks have to resort to borrowing from regular peoples' savings. The government is a little sensitive about that since it's the protection of regular people which originally led to the legislated segregation of investment from commercial banks. History certainly has a way of repeating itself, but it was fun while it lasted.

Annual Fourth of July Posting

Happy Independence Day. A couple weeks ago, I decided that I was going on vacation. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I knew it was going to involve eating. I took a bunch of pictures, but perhaps what I enjoyed doing most was taking the subways in Shanghai. Anyhow, here are a couple of offline tweets that I couldn't post due to my roaming status:

• Maybe we can judge distance roughly as follows: multiply speed of rotation of earth in terms of miles/hour and isolate the miles term by multiplying rate by number of timezones
• My Air fits in the magazine compartment. Not much good that does if I need to use it though and the seat's fully reclined.
• The "TSA" of Hong Kong caught my little swiss tech keychain knife immediately at the security checkpoint whereas EWR didn't seem to care :/
• I got seated in "premium economy"/emergency row by pure luck.
• My limited Chinese left me with only two meaty hotpot ingredients: beef spam and chicken wing tips. I recommend neither.
• I've gotten quite confused. All of a suddent 8RMB is expensive for food. It's very ironic. I think since cheap food is so available, expensive food is super expensive.
• Best green tea frappucino ever. Five bucks coffee is still five bucks.
• Best KFC ever. Real thigh meat and chicken wings. Really spicy.
• Really looking forward to IM on the iPhone. Too bad I won't be able to stand in line on 7/11!

I'll try a debrief with pictures? That means it will be relative to food. Oh, I almost forgot it was the Fourth of July. The most patriotic thing I've done so far on the vacation is to watch National Treasure 2.

White is the new black

I went to the Apple store today to make an international call using Skype, but found that many of the iMacs had parental controls turned enforcing a white list of websites users could access. That list included Apple websites, but did not include skype.com or even att.com, which made it difficult for me to download the software necessary for me to make my international call. Luckily not all Macs were restricted and I was able to take care of business.

In other news, I think it's at least worth mentioning that white is an available option on the 16GB iPhone 3G but is not available for the 8GB. Does that make white the new black, a traditional mark of distinction? Back when the first 2G iPod nanos were released, black was only available on the higher capacity 8GB nano. Black MacBooks also cost more than white MacBooks.

School's out for Rutgers buses

Red Mango

I wonder how this compares with Pinkberry. Note the mochi topping.

It's alive!!!

Watching my Solio Hybrid 1000 battery charger get juiced up upby the sun for the first time.

SNL satir[iz]es MSNBC debate

I don't have the conviction to endorse Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama but I have no problem making campaign contributions to her campaign since I don't think Obama needs it [at this point]. I can however endorse her plan for universal healthcare. Let me know if you want to have a conversation about that or feel compelled to change my mind about it. I can also say that it's fair to give her fair treatment in a debate. Many times, I've see her get asked a question first and cover the groundwork such that when Obama gets to respond, he fills in the gaps and gets the last word. This SNL skit does a good job of illustrating that. [Perhaps there's a little of rooting for the home team going on but I think it's mostly because Hillary was on the show that day.]

Primary vs. Solitary

Let's say there was a product out there that didn't do everything. It made some compromises. It didn't have all the features to make it the only product of it's kind in your life. Does that mean it can't be the primary product that you used most of the time? Of course not. If it allowed you to do 80% of the stuff you do, you can go and spend 80% of your time on it. That would make it your primary ____ if not solitary ____.

Familiar faces and unlimited ammo

I think Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles lives up to the Terminator franchise (although I haven't seen T3).

Episode One:


Episode Two:


Episode Three:

A dilemma but not a bad one to be in

I've been mostly undecided but have for a while believed that Hillary Clinton would be a more effective president than Barack Obama. After listening to each of his victory speeches (and even concession speeches), I can't help but feel that his message of bringing America together and giving Americans a sense of common destiny, regardless of race or economic status, is growing closer to fruition. I've even had the ridiculous idea that he would inspire not just us but the rest of the world.

I know that people can be fickle and that overhauling the political establishment isn't guaranteed to say the least, but it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy to elect a President Obama. It would mean that America truly came together in the recognition of his unrealistic vision, instantly making it a reality. The future he describes has universal appeal among Democrats and at least does not alienate [moderate] Republicans.

It's really unfortunate that Hillary cannot take the political high road since for most of her public life, she's been the target of partisan and personal attacks from Republicans and special interests. The "us versus them" mentality is real in American politics and personal to her. I don't mean to downplay struggles Obama has had to face (I'm not too familiar with them), but I recognize that his optimism is not something Hillary could honestly pull off despite her efforts at bi-partisanship.

Many of our decisions are made based on what other people think. We also defer to experts who know more about a topic than we do. This behavior probably helps us survive. We also make decisions based on emotions and gut feelings. Despite all of the momentum of Obama's campaign, I still feel more invested in Hillary's campaign and I'm not sure why. It could be because I feel she has a concrete grasp of exactly what needs to be done to accomplish the goals shared by most Democrats. To be honest, though, it's probably because I feel she is compassionate, thoughtful, and commands the respect of Eric Schmidt. To be fair, I have yet to watch the video of his interview with Obama at Google. Talk about anti-climactic. Anyhow, I'm happy to support either candidate should they win the Democratic nomination.

Twasn't just for Macworld Expo

I spent last week in San Francisco not just to attend Macworld Expo but to try some Californian food and wine. I didn't get to go to a Rubio's or In and Out, but here's a look at most of what we had:

A look from other angles at the MacBook Air

Catch one of the founders of Apple, Inc? Check!

Steve Wozniak beginning a wave! Thanks, [kind stranger], for getting his attention for me!

New apple tv ui