| Orycon |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|09:38 am] |
I just may drive to Portland for Orycon after work today.
Anyone else want to go? |
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| Change you can count on |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|07:14 am] |
Why is it so many people in America can't count change?
More interesting to me is why so many of those people don't seem to care that they can't add change correctly.
I remember workbooks back in first or second grade, the ones with cartoon drawings of nickels and dimes. So many adults would fail those lessons.
Like so many things these days, it's an issue of lacking a basic understanding. In this case, the basic understanding of how values of money are expressed. There are two elements. One is the quantity, the other is the unit. How many? How many of what?
There is a difference between 50 US dollars, and 50 Lyra?
And there is a difference between 50 US dollars, and 50 US pennies, right?
So, if you see a sign that says: $19.50 you know what that means.
19 US dollars and 50 US cents.
or 19 1/2 US dollars, where half of a dollar is the same thing as 50 US pennies.
19 is 19 whole units 0.5 is a half of a unit, the unit in question is the US dollar.
When you see the cents symbol, "¢", the unit of measure has changed. You are now counting pennies, not dollars. Even drug dealers have to be careful to get this one right. There is a big difference between a kilogram and a milligram of a drug.
Thus, these two values are in fact not the same:
.50¢ and 50¢
The first one is one half of one penny. Not very much. The second one is 50 whole pennies.
Using a period does not indicate pennies, it indicates a fractional amount less then one.
$.50 does equal 50¢
$5 does equal 500¢
.99¢ is just plain wrong, unless you really do mean that you could buy one for a penny and some how get change.
I find that sales people standing behind a sign with lots of prices like .99¢ look like idiots, and even more so when they just don't want to know how to correct their signs.
It may seem like a silly nitpick, that anyone looking at prices can figure out what is actually meant, but that's not always true. When buying natural gas, water, or any other commodity that is measured regularly in small units, or fractions of a penny's worth, you have to be careful. This is true when paying for network bandwidth. There is a big difference between 5¢ a megabit and 0.5¢ a megabit. One costs ten times the other.
You could really screw up a recipe for brownies with bad math. Just imagine a half a tablespoon of salt instead of half a teaspoon of salt. bleh. |
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| comcast is going digital |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|02:31 pm] |
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I'm going to have to upgrade the hauppage tuner card in my Vista Ultimate machine to work with Comcast's new digital cable over the next month. Anyone have any recommendations on which tuner card to use with comcast? |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 7th, 2009|08:57 pm] |
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jo's back home! A whole lot of stitches and a nasty looking drain tube hanging out the bottom. I'm staying home to keep her company and keep an eye on her. |
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| short one kitty for the night |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
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Josephine is staying the night at the pet hospital after getting a big nasty infection cleaned out. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 1st, 2009|09:43 am] |
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Does anyone know where I can buy a box of mustard packets? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 18th, 2009|08:23 am] |
What to do today? LakeFair in Olympia? Go ride the train? Drive to the coast? Play darts until my arm aches? Sailing?
Various SeaFair things? Anyone? |
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| Sharp! |
[Jul. 16th, 2009|07:30 pm] |
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| Today's Horoscope for Gemini |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|10:23 am] |
"You are as restless as the tides today; your feelings wash one way and then the other. Meanwhile, your thoughts are all over the map, even though you can make yourself appear as if you are not moving at all. Don't hide your need for variety now. Admit that you aren't ready yet to make final choices and keep your options open for a while longer."
No kidding! It's going to be a weird ride today, I'm really bouncing around inside my own head this morning. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|10:21 am] |
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Chinatown-International District Festival today. Anyone? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|01:08 pm] |
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$800 will get me a MotorGuide Great White SW109 HT Digital Electric Outboard and batteries for the sailboat. On sale, saves me about $200. Should I do it? |
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| Edge 490 |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|06:45 am] |
I no longer have room for the exercise bike I borrowed from a co-worker. He's admitted plans to just try to sell it anyway. It was great for during my recover and I replaced the broken control panel with a newer model so it works great. If anyone wants to make an offer, I could deliver it, rather than return it to him for his garage sale. It's an Edge 490.
like this: http://www.cheapfitness.com/490r_bike.htm |
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| scarf adoption notice |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|08:51 pm] |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) forgodestiny has applied to adopt the orange, red, burgundy. and green stripey scarf with gold sparkles that seems to have taken up residence in my kitchen, likely, since my birthday. If you would like to place a claim for ownership of said scarf, do so quickly. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|01:18 pm] |
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Who's going rock climbing tonight? |
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