Author Archives: John

HOA Nonsense

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To be fair, this is more specifically about the companies that are paid to manage HOA affairs by larger associations, like the one we are part of at Bayport in Alameda.

Sadly, I have yet to experience any of these firms that actually care enough to use some common sense, or even to act in a way that is in the best interest of the members that they work for. That said, I doubt any of them see themselves as working for the home owners. I sometimes suspect they don't even see themselves as working for the board of directors of the HOA (who represent the members).

Or perhaps their own performance is measured in some way based on the number of these notices they send out. As if that was some indication that they were doing their job.

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Tesla’s “True” Cost of Ownership

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Last week Tesla Motors announced a new pseudo-lease program claiming a true cost of ownership of just $500/month. That would be considerably less than I am paying right now for a car that would be comparable to their mid range, but that low figure comes from the entry level model of course.

Unfortunately, their way of getting to that number is stretching the truth quite a bit, and the program they announced is not really a lease at all; just a relatively high interest rate car loan with a buy back guarantee. We'll get to that later though. First, I'd like go go through the calculator web site they presented to get to that figure of $500/month; I am going to use the mid range model though as I suspect that is a more realistic option (the low end model has serious range limitation as the price difference comes from cutting the battery capacity).

Here is what they estimated as my monthly cost on that vehicle, after I removed the dubious business tax allowance, but leaving the high monthly mileage and average gas price in place:

Quite a lot more than the $500/month, and quite a lot more than I am paying now.

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Pebble: First Few Weeks

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What seems like a long time ago now, I backed a Kickstarter project to create a smart watch for iOS and Android called the Pebble. Due to deliver late last year, the project ran a little over schedule, but a few weeks back my Kickstarter Edition Pebble watch arrived in the mail, and I have been living with it ever since. This is my summary of my experiences in those first few weeks, using the watch connected to my iPhone 5.

I am deeming it to be semi-smart though, in contrast to some of the watches that are available since without the connection to the smartphone it does nothing more than tell the time. Even updating the time when daylight savings came into effect was dependent on a ping from the associated phone.

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Nike Fuelband vs Fitbit One

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My wife got a new Nike Fuelband for Christmas and after a bit of a struggle getting it set up, is wearing it daily to track her activity. Inspired by this, and by seeing other recipients of similar gadgets on app.net, I decided to look into getting something I could try. I ended up selecting the Fitbit One. This is my initial reaction to both devices, and the concept of gamified health tracking.

Gamification

A relatively new word, but far from a new concept, gamification seems to be everywhere these days. Tracking your daily activity is one of those things that after a day or so would simply become a task. Adding an abstract notion of score (such as Nike's Fuel values) and daily goals to reach or beat, turns this routine activity into something of a game. Add a social aspect to share your success with your friends online, or challenge each other to reach the highest score, and you have the motivation that many find lacking in just turning up to the gym a few times a week.

Health tracking applications are also popular right now. Bravo's recent “reality” show about Silicon Valley startups featured two applications in this space (one an app for predicting life expectancy and adjusting it based on your lifestyle, the other a motivation app pairing you with a mentor to keep you on track). In many ways, gadgets like the Fuelband and the Fitbit are doing similar things via their activity scoring and social sharing (motivation).

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Prepaid Plans for iPhone Users

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As a traveler who likes to stay connected, but doesn't like the rates that my home network operator charges when roaming, I am accustomed to looking for a prepaid SIM for my unlocked iPhone before traveling. When a relative from Australia said one of her first tasks after landing was to sort out a plan for her iPhone (which she checked was unlocked), I thought I would take a look at the prepaid plans available.

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Traveling With A Toddler

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When your toddler has family in several continents, it seems inevitable that they will be introduced to the experience of flying at a much younger age than their parents were. In our case, I didn’t leave the ground in an airplane until I was 19, and then I jumped out of it before it landed! Our little boy has already done three trips, including two long haul international trips, and he's only just 18 months old.

Test Flight

My first tip would be to plan a test flight, somewhere close (say 1-2 hours away), just to see how well your toddler reacts to being on a plane. We were lucky in that our little one slept both ways on the short flight we did (Oakland to Las Vegas), but in case it is a nightmare experience, you don’t want it to be too far to get home.

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Ferry Gets Half-Baked Clipper Support

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The recent addition of Clipper card readers at the ferry terminals in Alameda and SF looked like at long last the ferry service was going to get Clipper support so books of paper tickets would no longer be needed. And so it is, on October 1st.

Unfortunately, as with many aspects of the SF Bay area public transit system, those in charge of planning the addition of Clipper apparently don't use the service at all, or even listen to people who do.

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Blogging Daddies

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One of my recent online discoveries has been a blog called Dadabase, hosted by Parents magazine. It was actually through an article in their (electronic) magazine that I discovered it, and ever since then I have been an avid reader.

I can't say I agree completely with Dadabase author Nick Shell on everything, but it is fun to read about his experiences with his little boy, not least because he is about 6 months older than my own son so it is kind of like looking a little into the future!

Nick manages to post something almost every day, in addition to having a full time job and a baby. I don't know where he finds the time, or how he thinks of new topics, but I am enjoying reading his blog. I even have his Facebook page added to my news feed so I get the links to the articles there each day, as well as some occasional extra content.

One of the reasons I am blogging here in my own blog about my experiences with my little boy is that I don't think I'd be able to find the time or the topics to make a standalone daddy blog worth reading.

Does anybody out there have any other good daddy-oriented baby blogs they'd care to recommend?