Comments for More Light! More Light! http://www.morelightmorelight.com Illumination by Matt Katz Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:28:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 Comment on The beauty of Ruby’s array subtraction operator by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/06/02/the-beauty-of-rubys-array-subtraction-operator/#comment-92 MattK Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:44:35 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/06/02/the-beauty-of-rubys-array-subtraction-operator/#comment-92 You can eventually write ANYTHING in one line of Perl. You could definitely make this one line as well. The arrays potential_emails and delete_emails are there for readability. it coulda been puts IO.readLines(”potentials.txt”).map! {|email| email.strip.downcase} - IO.readlines(”donotemail.txt”).map! {|email| email.strip.downcase} How's that for terse? You can eventually write ANYTHING in one line of Perl.

You could definitely make this one line as well. The arrays potential_emails and delete_emails are there for readability.

it coulda been
puts IO.readLines(”potentials.txt”).map! {|email| email.strip.downcase} - IO.readlines(”donotemail.txt”).map! {|email| email.strip.downcase}

How’s that for terse?

]]> Comment on The beauty of Ruby’s array subtraction operator by Nate http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/06/02/the-beauty-of-rubys-array-subtraction-operator/#comment-91 Nate Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:47:52 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/06/02/the-beauty-of-rubys-array-subtraction-operator/#comment-91 I gotta admit that's pretty nice - three lines! It would take me considerably more in Perl... I gotta admit that’s pretty nice - three lines! It would take me considerably more in Perl…

]]> Comment on How to install Add-Art by karin http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/05/28/how-to-install-add-art/#comment-89 karin Thu, 29 May 2008 04:23:44 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/05/28/how-to-install-add-art/#comment-89 een beetje onduidelijk waar je dingen moet downloaden een beetje onduidelijk waar je dingen moet downloaden

]]> Comment on What I read in February by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/03/04/what-i-read-in-february/#comment-81 MattK Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:07:23 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/03/04/what-i-read-in-february/#comment-81 As usual, mooks: boobs. It's something I'd highly recommend to you as well. I'd like to hear your reaction to his criticism of empirical medicine and the reliance on decision trees. As usual, mooks: boobs.

It’s something I’d highly recommend to you as well. I’d like to hear your reaction to his criticism of empirical medicine and the reliance on decision trees.

]]> Comment on What I read in February by mooks http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/03/04/what-i-read-in-february/#comment-80 mooks Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:19:32 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/03/04/what-i-read-in-february/#comment-80 So what am I thinnking...? So what am I thinnking…?

]]> Comment on Obama by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/02/13/obama/#comment-78 MattK Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:57:57 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/02/13/obama/#comment-78 First Scott Hanselmann links to me and then Alex Barnett? Be still my beating nerd heart. First Scott Hanselmann links to me and then Alex Barnett? Be still my beating nerd heart.

]]> Comment on Obama by Alex Barnett http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/02/13/obama/#comment-77 Alex Barnett Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:54:08 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/02/13/obama/#comment-77 thanks for reading Matt, and for sharing Lessig's video. Not seen it before. Alex. thanks for reading Matt, and for sharing Lessig’s video. Not seen it before.

Alex.

]]> Comment on links for 2008-01-30 by sam http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/30/links-for-2008-01-30/#comment-76 sam Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:48:17 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/30/links-for-2008-01-30/#comment-76 I've read stuff like this before that says that the rate of return in the market is better in the long run than a house but the problem isn’t the money you could potentially win or loose; it’s that a person needs security as they get older. Most sources of smart personal finance info I know say that the best scenario is to hedge against the worst case scenario, not to put your eggs in one basket - which includes property - and have a balanced portfolio with stocks, bonds, T-Bills, 401(k), and no debt except to buy real estate as soon as possible so you pay rent for the least amount of time. An idyllic idea but not a reality in nyc, london, tokyo, san fran or anywhere else we'd care to live! I’ve read stuff like this before that says that the rate of return in the market is better in the long run than a house but the problem isn’t the money you could potentially win or loose; it’s that a person needs security as they get older. Most sources of smart personal finance info I know say that the best scenario is to hedge against the worst case scenario, not to put your eggs in one basket - which includes property - and have a balanced portfolio with stocks, bonds, T-Bills, 401(k), and no debt except to buy real estate as soon as possible so you pay rent for the least amount of time. An idyllic idea but not a reality in nyc, london, tokyo, san fran or anywhere else we’d care to live!

]]> Comment on links for 2008-01-30 by Nate http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/30/links-for-2008-01-30/#comment-72 Nate Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:17:25 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/30/links-for-2008-01-30/#comment-72 I hate to be the naysayer, and there's a lot of situations where renting makes sense (you don't know if you're going to stay in the area, you want to wait until the market stabalizes, you can't be arsed with repairs or taxes or co-op boards, you're thinking about having kids and moving to a bigger place anyway, etc etc), but I gotta object to the article. Almost any time you crunch the "how much will I really be paying per month" numbers, rent will be cheaper than mortgage (if it isn't then buy that sucker and rent it out right now!). The main draws of purchasing are the stability and appreciation. Ignoring the rent-stabilized and rent-controlled anomalies (if you live in one of those, then stay there!), you have no control over what will happen to your rent at the end of your lease period (usually 1 or 2 years). If the owner decides to sell the place after that, you have to start over. If the owner decides to jack up the rent to the current market rate, you can either bend over and pay, or move somewhere else for the same rent. At any rate, your rent is probably going to rise by at least 2-3 per cent per year (hell, it's assumed that your rent will increase - that's one reason why a 2-year lease generally costs more per month than a 1-year lease). Assuming you've got a relatively benevolent and stable landlord who raises your rent by 2.5% per year, that means that over 20 years your rent increase will be roughly 25% in 10 years and 65% in 20 years. After 30 years, your rent has more than doubled (and every fellow renter you know will be begging to sublet your place for the relatively cheap rent when you retire to Florida). Again, this is assuming that your landlord doesn't decide to sell the building or bring your rent more in line with the market. Contrast that with the fellow in the example who purchases a home today. At the end of 30 years, he will have just made his final payment, which is the same amount as the first payment. Furthermore, he will now own the home and can sell it for a boatload of money. I think it's also safe to say that, 20 years down the line, his mortgage payment will be considerably less than the market rental rate. Also, he's in no danger of getting screwed by his landlord. As a added bonus, the property will have appreciated considerably during that time - let's be modest and assume that it's worth 25% more than he paid for it. If it's the $750k "cheap" house in the given examples, then that gives our fellow a house worth $937k - take away realtors fees and closing costs from that (assuming realtors haven't been cleansed from the earth at this point) and he's left with about $870k to retire in Florida with. As of right now you can tax-deduct $250k of the appreciation of your residence (or $500k for a married couple), and since he bought it for $750k he's well within that threshold - so he ends up with $870k of tax-free money (again, assuming only a 25% increase in home value over 30 years, which is probably overly conservative). He might sell the place, or he might rent it out (hopefully for more than the cost of his retirement home - given that the example house is in Silicon Valley that's probably possible). Ah, but let's not forget about the 20% down payment that didn't get spent! Assuming the fellow invests it in the Treasury Bond mentioned in the article, he's going to multiply it about 2.5-fold, for about $375k (tax free!) after his 30 years are up. Or, if he takes a somewhat more aggressive investing strategy and averages 6%, he could get it up to about $850k - incidentally about the same amount as the fellow who bought the house - of course, he'll be taxed on all the money, plus don't forget he's paying considerably more per month for rent than the homeowner, so it's not really the same thing, but then again perhaps he'll be a great investor and end up averaging 10% (not my experience, but then again I'm not a great investor). So, I guess the moral of the story is, rent if you: --Have the discipline to save money and not pull it out for frivolities like vacation or sending your kids to college --Are confident you can get a good (at least 6% but more like 10%) consistent return on your money --Are very confident in the long-term prospects of your rent situation And buy if you: --Don't fit into all of the above criteria That being said, it's a crappy time to buy right now - I would give everything a little time to stabalize. Stay where you are and enjoy your backyard. --Nate I hate to be the naysayer, and there’s a lot of situations where renting makes sense (you don’t know if you’re going to stay in the area, you want to wait until the market stabalizes, you can’t be arsed with repairs or taxes or co-op boards, you’re thinking about having kids and moving to a bigger place anyway, etc etc), but I gotta object to the article.
Almost any time you crunch the “how much will I really be paying per month” numbers, rent will be cheaper than mortgage (if it isn’t then buy that sucker and rent it out right now!). The main draws of purchasing are the stability and appreciation.
Ignoring the rent-stabilized and rent-controlled anomalies (if you live in one of those, then stay there!), you have no control over what will happen to your rent at the end of your lease period (usually 1 or 2 years). If the owner decides to sell the place after that, you have to start over. If the owner decides to jack up the rent to the current market rate, you can either bend over and pay, or move somewhere else for the same rent. At any rate, your rent is probably going to rise by at least 2-3 per cent per year (hell, it’s assumed that your rent will increase - that’s one reason why a 2-year lease generally costs more per month than a 1-year lease). Assuming you’ve got a relatively benevolent and stable landlord who raises your rent by 2.5% per year, that means that over 20 years your rent increase will be roughly 25% in 10 years and 65% in 20 years. After 30 years, your rent has more than doubled (and every fellow renter you know will be begging to sublet your place for the relatively cheap rent when you retire to Florida). Again, this is assuming that your landlord doesn’t decide to sell the building or bring your rent more in line with the market.
Contrast that with the fellow in the example who purchases a home today. At the end of 30 years, he will have just made his final payment, which is the same amount as the first payment. Furthermore, he will now own the home and can sell it for a boatload of money. I think it’s also safe to say that, 20 years down the line, his mortgage payment will be considerably less than the market rental rate. Also, he’s in no danger of getting screwed by his landlord.
As a added bonus, the property will have appreciated considerably during that time - let’s be modest and assume that it’s worth 25% more than he paid for it. If it’s the $750k “cheap” house in the given examples, then that gives our fellow a house worth $937k - take away realtors fees and closing costs from that (assuming realtors haven’t been cleansed from the earth at this point) and he’s left with about $870k to retire in Florida with. As of right now you can tax-deduct $250k of the appreciation of your residence (or $500k for a married couple), and since he bought it for $750k he’s well within that threshold - so he ends up with $870k of tax-free money (again, assuming only a 25% increase in home value over 30 years, which is probably overly conservative). He might sell the place, or he might rent it out (hopefully for more than the cost of his retirement home - given that the example house is in Silicon Valley that’s probably possible).
Ah, but let’s not forget about the 20% down payment that didn’t get spent! Assuming the fellow invests it in the Treasury Bond mentioned in the article, he’s going to multiply it about 2.5-fold, for about $375k (tax free!) after his 30 years are up. Or, if he takes a somewhat more aggressive investing strategy and averages 6%, he could get it up to about $850k - incidentally about the same amount as the fellow who bought the house - of course, he’ll be taxed on all the money, plus don’t forget he’s paying considerably more per month for rent than the homeowner, so it’s not really the same thing, but then again perhaps he’ll be a great investor and end up averaging 10% (not my experience, but then again I’m not a great investor).
So, I guess the moral of the story is, rent if you:
–Have the discipline to save money and not pull it out for frivolities like vacation or sending your kids to college
–Are confident you can get a good (at least 6% but more like 10%) consistent return on your money
–Are very confident in the long-term prospects of your rent situation

And buy if you:
–Don’t fit into all of the above criteria

That being said, it’s a crappy time to buy right now - I would give everything a little time to stabalize. Stay where you are and enjoy your backyard.

–Nate

]]> Comment on New Look, problems fixed by mooks http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/19/new-look-problems-fixed/#comment-71 mooks Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:40:58 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/19/new-look-problems-fixed/#comment-71 Simple look makes post appear to run together. Need a little more. Simple look makes post appear to run together. Need a little more.

]]> Comment on links for 2008-01-26 by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/26/links-for-2008-01-26/#comment-70 MattK Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:12:02 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/26/links-for-2008-01-26/#comment-70 Thanks for the tip - sutree looks nice! How on earth does an israeli lass end up on my site? Thanks for the tip - sutree looks nice! How on earth does an israeli lass end up on my site?

]]> Comment on links for 2008-01-26 by Maytal http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/26/links-for-2008-01-26/#comment-69 Maytal Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:30:25 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/01/26/links-for-2008-01-26/#comment-69 This is one cool video indeed! I found more DIY hack videos on <a href="http://sutree.com" rel="nofollow">Sutree.com</a> . I really think you should check out this website cause they have some great videos there! I found it by accident and fell in love with it! This is one cool video indeed!
I found more DIY hack videos on Sutree.com . I really think you should check out this website cause they have some great videos there! I found it by accident and fell in love with it!

]]> Comment on links for 2007-11-29 by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/#comment-68 MattK Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:54:28 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/#comment-68 looks like open source news is stealing someone's content - and poorly! looks like open source news is stealing someone’s content - and poorly!

]]> Comment on links for 2007-11-29 by Open Source News » Blog Archive » links for 2007-11-29 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/#comment-65 Open Source News » Blog Archive » links for 2007-11-29 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:02:35 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/#comment-65 [...] to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. … http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/ More Light! More Light! [...] [...] to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. … http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/11/29/links-for-2007-11-29/ More Light! More Light! [...]

]]> Comment on Making the switch to Ubuntu by Nate http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/19/making-the-switch-to-ubuntu/#comment-58 Nate Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:45:03 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/19/making-the-switch-to-ubuntu/#comment-58 Dude, you've gotta try out rtorrent plus my rss daemon! You can get a lot of use out of that little ThinkPad - you'll never want to use Azureus again! Incidentally I noticed that you have the book captcha going on - nice. --Nate Dude, you’ve gotta try out rtorrent plus my rss daemon! You can get a lot of use out of that little ThinkPad - you’ll never want to use Azureus again!
Incidentally I noticed that you have the book captcha going on - nice.

–Nate

]]> Comment on Books: The Heat Death of the Universe by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-57 MattK Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:29:13 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-57 I think Gladwell actually makes a bit of a point that the evidence for the broken windows theory can be explained through fewer unwanted children. Maybe I'm misremembering. I only read the first few stories before I quit the book. Heat Death of the Universe is awesome, the rest were unimpressive. Don't want to mislead anyone. I think Gladwell actually makes a bit of a point that the evidence for the broken windows theory can be explained through fewer unwanted children. Maybe I’m misremembering.

I only read the first few stories before I quit the book. Heat Death of the Universe is awesome, the rest were unimpressive. Don’t want to mislead anyone.

]]> Comment on Books: The Heat Death of the Universe by Acton http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-56 Acton Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:14:42 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-56 It's clear from that last sentence that SOMEONE has been reading their Gladwell, eh? I just finished it up a couple weeks ago, solid book. I'll have to check this one out too, because I usually hate the stuff you read. It’s clear from that last sentence that SOMEONE has been reading their Gladwell, eh?

I just finished it up a couple weeks ago, solid book. I’ll have to check this one out too, because I usually hate the stuff you read.

]]> Comment on Books: The Heat Death of the Universe by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-55 MattK Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:10:56 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-55 Oh, I highly recommend you read the first story. But I was unimpressed by the others. This is an excellent book to get from the library. Or I could check it out and bring it for you when I come to visit... I gave it 3 stars on librarything http://www.librarything.com/work/1225501/reviews Oh, I highly recommend you read the first story. But I was unimpressed by the others.

This is an excellent book to get from the library.
Or I could check it out and bring it for you when I come to visit…

I gave it 3 stars on librarything http://www.librarything.com/work/1225501/reviews

]]> Comment on Books: The Heat Death of the Universe by Mooks http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-54 Mooks Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:42:11 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/08/books-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/#comment-54 I'm way to geeky not to read this. Entropy and social isolation.....I love it! I’m way to geeky not to read this. Entropy and social isolation…..I love it!

]]> Comment on links for 2007-09-28 by MattK http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/09/28/links-for-2007-09-28/#comment-53 MattK Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:09:10 +0000 http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/09/28/links-for-2007-09-28/#comment-53 Fair enough - Hope you like tomorrows: http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/06/links-for-2007-10-06/ Tape it off the internet! Fair enough -
Hope you like tomorrows: http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2007/10/06/links-for-2007-10-06/

Tape it off the internet!

]]>