WinCalendarTime, customize your windows clock

Have you ever said to yourself, "If only I could display the date as well as time in the windows task bar without making it take up more than one row?" Well I used to, until I discovered WinCalendarTime a few months ago. Its a simple windows C program that allows you to format the time display your windows desktop. You can chose to hide either the date or the time and there are three date formats. You can also display seconds of the minute. Unfortunately, it does not allow me to display the date in ISO format (e.g. 2009-04-18 23:34) . One day I might write a patch for that.

Education Views: Homogenity versus Heterogeneity of screwing kids up

I'll admit, its a rather wordy and pompous title, even by my standards. However I can't think of anything catchier.

I was discussing education with a coworker, and we had a disagreement over whether the federal government should have a role in it. He was all for a nationally dictated minimal curriculum. I, of course want to abolish the federal department of education and leave it as a state issue. Long term I'd like to abolish all the public schools, but the private and charitable infrastructure is not available to deal with such a radical move at the moment.

As we talked, it became apparent that similar motives and opposite views were driving us to our opposing stances. He didn't trust the state governments of other states to provide good education. I don't trust the federal government, or any of the state governments to handle education. In both cases, the concern was not for our kids (the kids he has now, and kids I might someday have), but for other kids.

The heart of his argument is that the federal government would do a good job of not screwing up kids too much. It would prevent some states from teaching Creationism. It would set reasonable achievement levels for reading and math. Individual states could hold their students to higher standards if they wanted.

The heart of my argument is any education gets something wrong. Rather than have a nation of people all with the same incorrect views on some topic, lets take steps to ensure that everyone is wrong about different things. In other words, if everyone is screwed up differently, market forces will weed out the incorrect ideas quicker. 

Tweeting Now

I tweet now. There is a section on the right of this blog that displays my current tweets.

Why tweet? Mainly because a friend was tweeting about an open source project developed that I meddle with occasionally. I could talk endlessly about why, but my radical ideas have already occurred to others.

Singing the praises of Credit Unions

I'm going to make a rare post where I talk about something in a positive light. That something is Peoples Alliance Federal Credit Union, my bank.

I joined shortly after taking a job in Hauppauge, NY in December 2002.  The credit union was walking distance from my office, which was good since I didn't have a car.

My initial impressions were pretty positive. The first part was the lack of any kind of withdrawal or deposit forms. Instead, you had a membership card, and told the teller what you wanted to do. You would get a printed reciept, that you had to sign if you were making a withdrawal. This sped things up to the point that it was quicker to talk to a real teller than an ATM assuming both had no lines. There also happens to be a branch in JFK, which I can access via a short walk from my house to the air train. Finally, they handle ATM deposits prmptly.

It did have its downfalls. First of all, they charge fees for using other ATMs. This is made doubly annoying by the fact that they are not a large bank with many branches. That being said, I've had accounts at large banks, and 90% of my ATM withdrawals were from bodega ATMs then. Basically, I don't plan in advance for my petty cash needs.

They also opened a branch in Ronkokoma. This is near my current job so it convient.

I've always felt a large faceless multination bank would better serve my needs, but never bothered to make the change. That being said I am aware of the benifits of small, more personal banks. I just never need one until late December.

I had just gotten my bonus checks and was going to pay off my car loan. I made a deposit and scheduled a payment for the 27th, which would have given the checks 4 business days to clear. Since they were payroll checks I expected them to clear in 2 days.

A few days later I noticed a $25 dollar fee and that the check had not cleared. I decide to call them up and see if this matter could be rectified in a small bank manner. It turns out that a 10 day hold was placed on the check. I asked why so long for a payroll check, I was told to call the branch I deposited the check at so they could verify it was a payroll check. They apparently still had the physical check at the local branch. I would have expected the physical checks to be archived at the central branch same day. 

I called that branch and explained my situation. I asked for the hold to be removed, and the $25 dollar refunded. She said she would find the check and call me back. When she called me back the funds were already released. She said since I get direct deposit, they assume any checks are not payroll checks, but i could write a note on the ATM deposit envelope next time asking for a shortened hold date. I will do this next December when I get my bonus check.

If this happened at a larger bank I don't know if I could get it rectified same day. I also don't know if they would be place a shorter hold on the check by default. All I know is that I was able to resolve this issue with two phone calls and one outgoing call. 

NJ Transit

Saturday was a day that required me to be in multiple locations. More specifically, the girlfriend and I had a holiday party in Succasunna, and my high school friends were getting together for dinner in Little Italy in downtown Manhattan. I decided to drive out to Succasunna, stay for the beginning of the party, and use NJT to get me to Little Italy. The girlfriend was spending the night at the house where the partywas held, so I would go back and sleep in Succasunna.

It took a bit of Research to figure out that the closest train station operating on the weekend was in Dover, NJ. Their iternary planner does not handle a walk or drive of more than a mile to a bus stop or train station. The third rail terminates after that station, requiring diesel locomotives to operate trains beyond that station. It is a 15 minute drive to the station, so while not being the closes train station, it was still reasonably close, especially for a rural area.

I got to the train station and learned that all parking spots in the lot required either a permit or had 12 hour meter. I'm talking an old fashioned analog quarters only meters. However, the lot is closed from 2am to 6am and all day on Sunday. This is a source of anger, because I will be returning after 2 am.

I walk to a liquor store and use the ATM. I then ask the clerk where I can park past 2am. He tells me to park on a side street. This proves to be quite easy. I'm still angered at the town arbitrarily closing of the parking lot while trains are running, especially the metered parking spots. However, its no longer an issue of urgency to me.

I go on the platform and see no ticket machines. I go to the station and see that a ticket agent is working on a Saturday at 6pm. There is a line and my train will soon be here. However, everyone else on the line has the same problem I do. I ask the person in in front of me in line about ticket machines. He say there are none. I comment about the parking regulations and he replies, "this is not a customer friendly station".

When I am next in the queue I approach the window. I place my bank card on the counter and say, "Hoboken." She informs me the machine is not reading cards. I am thankful I just went to the ATM at this point. I place $20 dollars down on the counter and say, "Hoboken." She produces a ticket. I take the ticket and change and thank her.

The train comes and I get on. At Newark Broad Street I transfer to Hoboken. At Hoboken I take the Path, then a Taxi.

Dinner comes and goes. A good time is had by all. I return to Hoboken Terminal. I am confused by the available trains and what I thought the schedule said. I decide to buy my ticket and then ask questions. I ask the conductor of the next departing train if i can change at Secaucas to the Dover train. He thinks for a moment and says yes. I get on the train and detrain one stop later at Secaucas.

At Secaucas, I initially think I cannot get on my train because I cannot find a scheule for my train line on the platform. This is expecially problemsom because I was expecting to get on the last train to Dover until 7am. My fears are relieved when I go upstairs and find out how large Secaucus Junction is. It is not the usual setup of several platforms parallel to each other that most multi line train stations have. Different tracks are at different levels. There are turnstiles with card readers blocking access to the platform I need to get on. They do not accept my card.

The station attendant tells me I need to buy an "access card" to get down. He punches in the cheapest ticket he can in the machine, a one stop Senior/Disability ticket that costs $1.50 and has me pay for it. This ticket works.

I had to wait a bit for my train. I wandered between the waiting area that is too hot and the platform outside in the below freezing weather. The train arrived and I got on.

Before the last stop the conductors herd us all into one car so they only have to operate one set of doors. This doesn't bother me. The fact they that the conductor herding from the front and the one herding from the back can't agree on which car to herd us into does. We get out, and as I am walking along the platform I realize I have left my book on the train.

I flag down a conductor and he opens the door. He says he is pretty sure he saw an old guy in a red vest carrying it. We check the train to be sure. I run down the platform, find the guy and get my book.

The drive back to Succasunna was not without events. I could not find one street and went to a Dunkin Doughnuts to ask for directions. No one was at the counter. Seeing a large wad of ones in the tip cup made me realize I could have easily absconded with the register drawer. I of course did not. I decided to relieve myself in the bathrooms, which, surprisingly for a Dunkin Doughnuts, required no key. When I came back I saw a man waiting at the counter. I informed him I was waiting a while and asked him for directions. He told me how to find the street I was looking for and went to knock on the kitchen door. I walked out and got back in my car.

Other than having to stop twice for deer in the road I made it back to the house where my girlfriend was staying for the night a few minutes after 04:00. Yes deer in the roads. This is the part of Jersey where the backyard landmines are deer, as opposed to the geese and dog droppings in small parks more civilized places tend to have. Since the parks I refer to are about the size of backyards in this part of Jersey, the analogy is fair.

I am contemplating writing to NJ Transit and town of Dover about my experience. I think one or two ticket machines would be beneficial to the station, and reduce the need for a station attendant on Saturdays and weekday afternoon evening. I have to research the Secaucus Junction transfer fee, and if it was really necessary to take that route. Finally, I must verify that the Dover Station parking lot is operated by the town of Dover, as is the case with LIRR parking lots. I will then air my concerns about the parking lot closing from 2am to 6am and on Sundays.

Changing a fuse

I was driving to work Monday. This particular commute happened to involve 2 states, 6 counties, 2 bridges, three distinct land masses, and one 2005 Toyota Corolla

I was going over the second bridge, when I realized that I forgot to plug my Samsung T509 cell phone into the charger.  As I started plugging in the charger and the phone my center console died on me. The fuse failed.

Eventually, I managed to replace the fuse with a spare in the front fuse box this particular fuse happens to be in a very inaccessible fuse box under the steering wheel. Thanks to Albert's blog post on neocarz.com, I had a easier time than if I had to rely solely on my Corolla's owner manual.

Interesting Chinese Proverb

I was reading slashdot, and the fortune on my slashdot home page was the following:

The universe is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be
ruled by interfering.
-- Chinese proverb

An interesting proverb from country that seems to prefer order to liberty. Now I'm painting with very broad strokes here, well more like a 12" roller than a brush. However, though provoking none the less.