Trae Blain's Blog

All-Star Games

2012-02-10T07:54:14-08:00

With the NHL All-Star game behind us, the NBA All-Star game just ahead, and the NFL Pro-Bowl just a few weeks ago (sorry MLB), I just wanted make a few comments on these games and how the professional governing organizations aren’t taking advantage of these events.

MLB All-Star Game

The MLB is the one group that does most of these things correct. But of course, there’s room for improvement. Like most All-Star games the players are mostly voted on by the public. I don’t necessarily mind this aspect, and baseball has enough positions that it’s not too big of a deal. But starters should be selected from merit, in a two phased system where stats select the candidates and coaches/writers choose the actual starters. Then the public can select the rest of the clubhouse, except the few that the manager gets to select for his team.

Why this system? Teams like Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs have so many fans that certain players become All-Stars without deserving it. But I also know that without some of these guys, the viewers will be fewer than before. So you make the ‘Starters’ an item of prestige, then the rest the popular vote.

Also, the Home Run Derby did move in the right direction. But instead of having the player pick his team, they should let the manager of the team with the most home runs select his team (again with 1 fan vote). This way it’s similarly fun with a pick, but puts it in the hands of a talent evaluator instead of a player. This should make for greater dynamics.

NBA All-Star Game

NBA is nice as well, but is completely flopped on player selections. Instead of the fans selecting the starters (like this year where the West is full of LA players and Ming supporters stuffing the vote) the fans should be selecting the reserves (or at least some of them).

The dunk contest should not be rigged…that’s one thing. Kia paid for Griffin’s dunk to win. That can’t happen again. Also, the NBA’s exhibitions are prime for fan fun. Why can’t Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Sir Charles participate in things like the 3 point competition. They all get relegated to the “Celebrity” challenge. Why not let them do some of the skill items as well. Then have a Top Legend vs. Top Current…heck even put the Top D-Leaguer in there as well.

NHL All-Star Game

Now most people would admit that a 12-9 hockey game has to be amazing, but I feel bad for the goalies. A team full of offensive powerhouses is a nice show, but fans really don’t have much of a say. Again, a team should be a rounded bunch not selected by their offensive skill.

To be honest, not sure what to do here. More fan involvement. Move it to an outdoor venue…that might be the biggest draw. On a pond? Mystery, Alaska anyone? hehe.

NFL Pro-Bowl

This is the biggest disaster of them all. First, everyone has got to stop getting into the Pro-Bowl. It’s funny how one person says he can’t make it and suddenly you’ve got some crazy player as a Pro-Bowler. Second, to help fix the first move the date so the Super Bowl doesn’t impact the game. NFL made this move to help boost viewers…but it now makes making the Pro Bowl almost worthless.

Next, for the alternates…they aren’t “Pro Bowlers”. They get to play in the game to fill a roster spot, but are not a “Pro Bowlers”. Next, you have to figure out how to get people actually playing. No one wants to get injured so they play the offense light. If this isn’t fixed, then there shouldn’t be a game. Plain and simple.

Again, not sure how to fix this. I honestly think the NFL should do an “I want a bigger contract” for all the people with something to proove…then you’ll see a game!

MLS All-Star Game

Do they have All-Stars? Aren’t they in England?

WNBA All-Star Game

Ok, this one is done right. Come on, last year’s layup competition was amazing…

NLL All-Star Game

Seriously, how many Toronto Rock and Colorado Mammoth players can you fit on the teams? Huh? West is totally going to take this one.

Somebody That I Used to Know

2012-02-08T19:22:53-08:00

This could be the greatest YouTube music video I’ve seen in a long time. OK Go has some great videos that are very creative. But creative “YouTube Music Videos” are almost expected these days. This video is so simple, it’s great. Let’s just ignore the fact that the voice meld greatly and the song was one of the best songs of 2011. Enjoy!

And One Email Turned the Tides

2012-02-01T20:22:33-08:00

For a while now I’ve been trying to get some upgrades on my Verizon FiOS television. I’ve waited patiently for Verizon’s system to run its course, I’ve talked to people, but nothing happened. After what happened this weekend, it was the last straw. As I said, I have had one of the original DVR’s provided by Verizon. It’s the same one I’ve had since I started my service. After the OS install, you only get approximately 18 hours of HD recordings. So if you record a couple movies to view later you are down to barely any space. In fact, we would loose many programs to deletion because we’d run out of space. So I really wanted one of the higher capacity DVRs. My neighbor has had one since the spring, so I looked into it and they didn’t have any available. A few months ago, I hear that there is a sign-up page for the new DVRs. I submit my name and email, but heard nothing. The Verizon forums claim that their sign-ups were processed within days. But, I figure my area might have higher demand, so I wait.

This past week, I was re-evaluating my cable/internet/phone setup. I wanted to move to a cheaper package that had all the channels we watch as well as upgrade a few things. After changing my package, I was told I had to wait until everything went through before I could change my equipment. So, after that, there’s no option to order the higher capacity DVR. I called, they said you can only do it online. I went back online, chatted with a service online specialist who had no idea what I was talking about. Then called back and the new representative, said she could order it and did. The key here is that she said I could pick it up at a local Verizon store. So my wife visited the store (since I was at work) and waited in line for an hour, only to be told that “No matter what anyone on the phone tells you, no Verizon store stocks the high capacity DVRs”. GREAT!

That was the last straw. But I honestly felt that the system Verizon has in place could take care of it. So I called them again. I asked to be elevated to a supervisor, but was told that “all the supervisors are in a meeting and unavailable” so I once again explained my issue with that representative. She said I needed to talk to Technical Support. So I was transfered.

Let’s start with this. Technical Support told me from the beginning that they cannot order new hardware, they can only get replacement for current hardware delivered. But, even after that, the representative tried to help me find the place to order a new DVR. I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with Verizon TS. This guys supervisor got on the line later and said he couldn’t do anything but call customer service and speak with orders. So back to CS. Again talking to CS 2 hours later, I was told that a supervisor is unavailable because they are all in a meeting.

That finally was the last straw. I had enough, but had no idea what to do. All I could think of is something I read about a long time ago called the Executive Email Carpet Bomb. So I went to the Verizon Leadership page. Assumed that the email addresses were structured firstname.middleinitial.lastname@verizon.com and constructed an email with my problem.

Thirty-eight minutes…that’s right 38 minutes…later, I get a call from the regional president of Verizon Communications expressing her apologies and told me that they will get a technician out there that same day with the new equipment. A great technician came out laughed with my wife about what happened—apparently he got a call from his boss’s boss to drop everything can deliver our new box. The regional president said she got my email forwarded to her from the Chairman, President and CEO. No one was motivated to help me, and kept passing me to someone else…I guess I had to go to the one guy that couldn’t pass it off to anyone else. And we are off and running.

So after months of getting the run around, a single email changed my fate. The regional president also commented that she would investigate why the system failed in this case. Which makes me happy, so no one else will be caught in this hell…hopefully. If you’d like to read my email—and believe me, I’ll not care if you don’t—here it is below.

To: A list of Verizon Executives Corporate and Regional
From: Trae Blain
Subject: Regarding issues of Customer Support and Orders

Dear Mr. McAdam and Mr. Erhart, as well as other member of the executive leadership team,

My name is Trae Blain (Acct# ~~#####~~), and I have been a loyal Verizon customer since my wife and I bought our first house in 2007. In fact, Verizon FiOS was one of the things I was excited to receive upon moving into our own place. Although the cable and satellite companies have leapfrogged over Verizon in their innovative television offerings, I’ve stuck with Verizon in hopes of seeing similar innovation and overwhelming happiness in my Internet and Home phone services.

Since the beginning, I’ve always been frustrated with the standard HD DVR system provided by Verizon. Due to it’s small hard drive size, my wife and I would miss recorded programming due to it being deleted off the system due to lack of space. But at the time, it was on par with competitive offers. I’ve waited patiently for hardware upgrades, but never saw them. Until recently my neighbor received a new DVR with much more space and improved interface. As a loyal customer and hungry for more, I immediately inquired how to upgrade. Your Customer Service (CS) reps pointed me to a site to sign up. I’ve signed up, multiple times and for months now have waited for information on the upgrade.

Finally unsatisfied with the current level of offering, I contacted CS to process an upgrade. After on CS agent explained that I could order (please note the term ‘order’) it online, I moved to Verizon online to order the new hardware. While unable to find the place to order the new hardware, I chatted with a CS representative who was unable to provide the location for ordering, only the signup link that I’ve tried multiple times to no avail. Next contacting a phone CS representative, this representative explained that she could place the order, placed it, then I could pickup the new hardware at and Verizon Plus store. One of these stores is in my area, but due to work constraints my wife would pick up the new hardware.

After my wife, ~~??????? ???? ???~~, waited an hour for service in the Verizon Plus store, the representative there explained to her that no Verizon Plus store carries these upgrade DVRs in stock, and that it must be ordered. Frustrated, I contacted phone CS once again to try to take care of this issue. I requested a manager and was told that none of them were available because of a meeting. Explaining my situation to that CS representative, I was transferred to Technical Support (TS)—who by the way, I have had wonderful experiences with. The TS rep. explained they cannot upgrade hardware, only order replacements to current hardware. But he also tried to help me find the location that I could order the upgrade online, but only found the email signup link that has done nothing for months. The TS supervisor sent me back to CS, to where the supervisors were once again unavailable due to a meeting (which I am now suspect as to if this is the truth).

To resolve my issue, I would like to be contacted by the actual people who can simply place this order for upgraded hardware. I’m not even asking for monetary compensation for the troubles I’ve been through, I simply want action on the part when requests are made. I can be contacted at either ~~###.###.####~~ or ~~###.###.####~~.

I look forward to hearing your reply and a resolution to my situation. I will wait for 3 days for resolution, before seeking other avenues for my television service.

Thank you for your time, as I know your time is much better served elsewhere.

Trae Blain

Disclaimer: If you use this avenue, please only do so as a last resort. I still believe that most companies have systems and traps in place to get their customers what they want. Even if it involves speaking with supervisors. But when all else fails, it might be your only choice.

The Gridiron League

2012-01-24T11:32:02-08:00

Much like the NBA Redesign, a designer has taken it upon himself to push for a redesign of the NFL team logos to something more classic instead of the crazy shadow/swoop infused styles that is the current trend. He wishes that the NFL designed their logos more like Budweiser instead of Bud Light. He calls this group, The Gridiron League. Wes argues that many teams—Patriots, Broncos, Rams, Lions—have upgraded their logos in a way that looses their heritage. Which is true. He’s also suggesting change to many logos should change even though they haven’t digressed much since the 60’s. Arguing to make it cohesive and original, he’s effecting everyone whether they need it or not. My argument is that only a few team really sould have been touched. Here’s a sample of his works:

I like the spirit, but find it fail since the NFL actually does a decent job at sticking with traditions…I’m looking at you NBA! The Cowboys have had the star since the 1960’s added the piping in 1964. Indianapolis/Baltimore has had the horseshoe since 1957. San Fransico has had roughly the same logo since 1968. Pittsburgh since 1969. Oakland/LA/Oakland since 1964. Jets and Giants returned to their 1960’s style in the late 90’s and early 00’s, respectively. New Orleans since 1967. Minnesota since 1966. Miami is roughly the same since 1966. Green Bay since 1961. Detroit moved farther away in 2009, but still close since 1970. Cleveland since 1970. Chicago, save some color, since 1962. Kansas City and Washington since 1972. And Atlanta‘s 2003 update was the first big transition from the 1966 design.

So looking at that list, 16-17 of the 32 teams have classic logos. Six teams were establish since new since 1990. Many people feel the Bengals‘ have a classic logo, although only since 1981. These 6 are the worst ‘newly stylized’ offenders. Then teams like Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Denver and the St. Louis (although helmet is similar) have adapted to the ‘new’ style ditching the classic look (you could argue Atlanta into this group). The you have teams like Seattle, San Diego, New England, and Buffalo who have ditched their classic logos for logos that aren’t agregiously stylize (New England and Buffalo) or aren’t dramatically different (Seattle and San Diego…possibly Detroit here as well).

What’s that mean? While these designs are nice and maybe it’s time for every team to look at their logos, most of the teams in the NFL could actually be left alone. This isn’t the NBA for crying out loud.

Smashburger [G.D. Burger]

2012-01-22T15:00:31-08:00

Smashburger is a newcomer based out of Denver, Colorado. They, like most of the places I’ve listed, want to build a better burger. Smashburger, originally IconBurger, derives its name from the process they use of smashing a ball of ground beef to form the patty. According to them, everything is fresh. And for the most part, it tasted that way. The meat of the burger tasted well seasoned, but it had a crush around it that you normally find in frozen burgers. The outside of frozen meats tend to crust because of the extra time needed to fully grill the burger, Smashburgers have this same crust but might be more from their process rather than the meat itself. The bun (they call ‘Artisan’) was very good. Well toasted and a great flavor that differs from the standard bun.

As you can see above, there was no lettuce for my order. Not sure if that was a mistake but my wife had lettuce she didn’t mind giving to me. The lettuce though was Romaine, which doesn’t go well with a burger. It’s softness and toughness do not compliment the burger well. Onions and cheese were nice, but the pickles were excellent. Not sure if it is the brand or what, but the pickles here were probably the best I’ve had so far.

Smashburger doesn’t throw any special sauce on the burger, just standard yellow mustard. The fries are ‘Smashfries’ which means nothing since you cannot smash them. They are standard frozen bag fries, but are seasoned in a wild way that made up for the frozen fry package. But it still made you wonder how much better they could have been if it was fresh potatoes.

2 out of 5

All in all, I wrestled with giving Smashburger a 3 out of 5, but I couldn’t honestly go above a 2. With standard condiments, bad lettuce, and meat that felt frozen (even though it’s not); I can’t give them a better score. I can’t really justify much of a return visit, although they do serve excellent milkshakes and fried pickles.

Has a Smashburger moved into your town? What did you think?

Best Android Apps [Updated]

2012-01-13T22:30:00-08:00

I haven’t updated my favorite Android Applications list in a while, and a number of applications have suplanted those in the list. So I’m here to correct for that.

Google+: Google Plus is actually a good app. It is simple and easy to use. It also allows you to auto upload your pictures to Google Photos (which will be Picasa down the road). Free

Entertainment

Camera Zoom FX: Replacing Vignette as the best true camera-app replacement is Camera Zoom FX. Camera Zoom does standard capture plus a Timered, Action, and Time Lapse. It does filters and borders, amoung others. You can also download special items, like take your picture with the Queen. $2.99

Pixlr-O-Matic: Replacing Retro Camera is Pixlr-O-Matic. These photos are great with one of the prettiest interfaces out there. It’s simple to use and has a ton of options. I wish they’d integrate with a sharing service natively, but the standard Android sharing works nicely. Free

Google Music: I really love the DoubleTwist interface, but using Google Music has been much easier. I really liked the syncing with my library, but now my library syncs with Google online and then to my phone instantly. Great experience and the latest update is nice. Free

Productivity

Swiftkey X: Sadly, I have replaced Swype with a better keyboard. I was having more and more trouble with Swype’s dictionary. It would add words on a whim. Just because I typed something once, doesn’t mean I may ever type it again (web addresses, capture codes, etc.). With Swiftkey it’s great. And honestly, I should really get used to touch typing as Swype may not be on every phone I use. $3.99

Read It Later and Read It Later Pro: Instafetch worked well to sync my reading items from Instapaper, but Read It Later is a much better app. Now they have a free version and it works well. Free/$2.99

ES File Explorer: ES is free, add free, and works with rooted devices. It’s one of the best file explorers out there. I cannot deny the greatness that this is when I need a file manager. Free.

That’s it for now. I will update my Best Android Apps page to reflect these changes soon, so check it out to get the best apps you need.

The Bowl Championship Series Can't Win

2012-01-11T19:50:00-08:00

Once again we end the College Football season with millions of people clamoring for more. There are people yelling at the NCAA’s choice of championship selection, and trying to push their own agendas. Well, I cannot go against the grain, can I? Let me begin with what I think about this year. I don’t hate the BCS system. I don’t like it. I think that a playoff system will be much more enjoyable for the audience as well as actually be capable of increasing dollars earned. But, I don’t think that the BCS system is inherently evil.

The System

The BCS Selection System has a purpose of selecting the top two teams for the national championship game. That’s the official point. Proponents claim that the BCS makes every regular season matter. That in a playoff system, lower ranked teams have no reason to keep playing hard and teams that “clinch a spot” will have those rest/fluff games towards the end.

So. We, as fans, are supposed to buy into this. We know now that:

We have to perform well enough that a sports writer or similar from the other side of the country can make an informed enough decision on how well they would match up against the top teams this person covers. (Harris Pole)
Perform in a way that makes coaches from other teams stop and think about their matchup. (Coaches Poll)
And to help eliminate subjectivity: generate the stats, play the correct difficulty of teams, be in the right conference, and calculate correctly through a statistical algorithm.

I don’t have a problem with that system. If this is the way it is, I can do subscribe to it.

Problem 1: Coaches’ Poll

Although some people my have issues with the Harris Pole, I don’t. The only problem I’d raise with it is that Notre Dame gets 3 members. Each conference gets 10 and with every conference getting 10+ schools, it seems a bit disproportionate.

But the USA Today Coaches’ Poll has an inherent flaw. It was publicized heavily for the first time this year in Nick Saban and David Shaw’s 4th place vote for Oklahoma State. Regardless of whether or not this is correct, both of these coaches had serious ulterior motives for their higher rankings. You’d argue that in a pool of 59 coaches this would get ruled out, but with this year’s close race for that #2 spot things could have swung differently. Also, Mike Leach at one time ranked Texas Tech No. 2 over a No. 5 Texas when Texas and USC had legitimate chances of playing for the BCS Championship. Things like this are affecting people’s rankings.

If we are going to have a Coaches’ poll, then one thing needs to change. My proposal:

Coaches’ Poll should have 59 voters with an additional 25 coaches in reserve.
If your team is in the Top 25 of the Coaches’ Poll the prior week, you cannot vote in that week? poll
The 25 reserve coaches will be ranked by tenure and other factors and will fill in the open slots. Up to 25 coaches.
When a coach gets fired/retires, the highest ranking member of the reserve group will fill the slot.

This will help keep strong coaches in the poll and hopefully push out much of the bias. It cannot fix everything, but would bring more credibility to something controls 1/3 of the championship rankings.

Problem 2: Inconsistencies

Again, we are buying into the BCS system. And to be honest, I don’t think the BCS would have had a problem this year if it wasn’t for how it went against previous years. Where, and specifically after Alabama’s decisive win, it’s hard to dispute that the top two teams played in the championship game this year. But if it wasn’t for the inconsistencies from year to year, there would be little fuel to the dissenter’s fire.

In 2009 Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State not only won out their season; they each won their conference titles. The lone looser was Florida which lost the SEC championship game to Alabama. This year, playoff proponents had an argument in that those 4 teams had legitimate bids for that championship. But since college football elects their champions, Alabama and Texas fought for the title. Florida was ranked #1 over Alabama up to that point, but when someone doesn’t win their conference they got booted down the list.

It was one game. In 2009, Florida lost one game to an inter-conference team on a neutral field and was dumped 4 slots and lost their chance to play in the Championship game. In 2011, Alabama lost one game to an inter-conference team at home and was allowed to play in the Championship game. 2006 Michigan was unable to win the Big Ten Conference behind Ohio State. That year, Harris and the Coaches’ Polls penalized Michigan by placing Florida—a conference champion—over them (the Computers did not). Michigan was unable to play for the BCS Championship since it could not win its conference. Alabama was unable to win its conference and did not even win its division and was allowed to play in the Championship game. In 2008, Texas beats Oklahoma 45-35. But because Texas Tech spoiled Texas with an amazing last minute win, Oklahoma moves in front of Texas in the November 30th pole. Even though Oklahoma was beaten by Texas and Texas was arguably the better team. Due to the fact that Texas didn’t win their conference nor their division, Texas doesn’t play for the Championship. Alabama has close to the same situation happen, yet they get to play for the championship.

If ‘every game counts’ in the BCS system, then Alabama should have seated #3 behind Oklahoma State or Stanford. Mostly Oklahoma State, due to their loss coming on the day of mourning of the death of two coaches and losing because a field goal was called wrong…at the very least is controversial. Again, I believe that Alabama and LSU were the best teams. But history showed that the BCS doesn’t select the best teams, necessarily. It established a set of disqualifying criteria, which it decided to reject this year on a whim.

My solution? The BCS Championship game—by default—cannot be played by non-Conference title winners. Simple as that.

Many conferences are upset at many of the problems of having two SEC teams this year; most notably the monetary losses. This not only would solve this, but finally define the rule that we’ve all thought was an unwritten one up until this year.

I’ve reserved to the fact that a playoff in college football won’t happen. Although I’d love an AQ Conference winner and a few “Wildcard” slot type playoff, I’m accepting the BCS system. The problem is, we cannot and should not just accept these glaring issues. I am aware this would overturn the current National Champion, but it could have happen in those prior noted years as well. Beating a Top 5 team twice is hard in any scenario, no matter who the team is. The odds were against LSU from the beginning.

<TL/DR> The BCS is broken. The Coaches’ Poll should not allow coaches of ranked teams to participate the following voting period. In 2006, 2008, and 2009 a team that lost its conference (or even division) was not allowed the Championship chance, but this year one was? Unless you win your conference, you cannot play in the BCS Championship.

My Site's New Need for Speed

2012-01-08T22:32:00-08:00

Speed… Website speed it kind of a buzz word these days and I decided to jump into this world to try to pull up my speed rank on this site. So I dug into Google’s Page Speed site and plugin and started making modifications to my site to improve its performance. After a bit of trial and error I have finally achieved a Speed Rank of 96 out of 100. Yes!

Smaller Main Page

First thing I did was reduce the size main page. Originally I had all my blog posts put on a single page. Which wasn’t that big of a deal, but Hyde has a paginator plugin hyde.ext.plugins.paginator.PaginatorPlugin that will split the posts up and add a /page2 etc. for the additional pages. So this reduced the amount of HTML loaded for the main page. Commit

This isn’t exactly a speed improvement, but I like what I did. I also used a jQuery ajax call to dynamically load the additional pages. Instead of clicking the provided “Page 2” link, you can just click the “Show More” link and it will load without actually going to the next page. It also will fall-back for non-javascript users to the standard link. I’m pumped how well it worked out.

Uglify | Minify

One way to improve speed is to compress your CSS and Javascript. This is done by Minifying the CSS and Uglifying the Javascript. Basically it gets rid of the indentation and comments that help readability of the scripts. For the Javascripts, I used Hyde‘s Uglify plugin hyde.ext.plugins.uglify.UglifyPlugin that compressed my Javascripts down quite a bit. Real simple change and a nice boost in speed. Commit

For the CSS I was using LessCSS that allows me to use CSS variables and mixins, so I wasn’t sure if I could Minify the CSS. Sure enough, LessCSS has a compression argument that will do just that. After figuring out how to get it to work with Hyde, I have a compressed CSS for speed. Commit

Server Configurations

Cache

First thing I did was include Caching. I setup the Cache-Control items in the HTTP headers. I did this by adding these:

# 480 weeks
<FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|swf|svg)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=290304000, public"
</FilesMatch>

# 2 weeks
<FilesMatch "\.(js|txt|css)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=1209600, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>

# 1 day
<FilesMatch "\.(xml)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=86400, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>

# 2 hours
<FilesMatch "\.(html|htm)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>

This gave me Caching on some primary files and allows for the items that most often will change to be renewed fairly soon. Commit

HTTP Compression

Apache can compress the files delivered and most all modern browsers support this. So I needed to add a handler that will compress many of the files. Using Apache’s mod_deflate.c I was able to add compression to many of my files.

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
<FilesMatch "\.(js|css|html|htm)$">
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

The only issue I have found is that my Google PageSpeed will sometimes drop to 86/100 because it thinks I’m not using compression. I found out that my host, Bluehost, dynamically turns on and off compression based on CPU usage. So at any given time I may or may not have compression working. I’m not sure how I feel about that though. Commit

Character Encoding

Finally I added Character Encoding to the HTTP headers:

AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

According to Google this helps… eh. Commit

What I’m Missing and What’s Left

I’m finally left with items I cannot control. Most of this is funny because Google is the one recommending these speed improvement and most of the items that are suggested are because of Google. Sad they cannot follow their own performance rules.

First, we have a Cache Validator problem with my Google Fonts. Apparently Google doesn’t validate. hehe.

Second, I have a “Defer parsing of Javascript” this basically pushes the Javascript to only run at the end of the page load. Where I was able to fix this item, it actually hurt the page load. It actually took longer to load the page when the parsing was defered…but it still hurts my score.

Third, it recommends Minifying the HTML as well. I could do this, but I’m not sure if Hyde has a plugin or way to do this during processing. If it doesn’t, then it’s no big deal. It says it could save 8.1k. It also incorrectly asks to Uglify a Javascript I have. It’s already Uglified, but there is Copyright data that I haven’t removed which makes the PageSpeed plugin think it’s not.

Finally, It suggests removing unused CSS which I’m not going to do. And using efficient CSS selectors that I’m not going to modify because of CSSLess.

Sot that’s my site’s speed bump. What do you think? Anything I need to do further, or know of a way to force Bluehost to always compress?

Is it Time to Drop the Penny?

2012-01-04T08:32:00-08:00

Sounds like a decent thought. These days the cent is more of an annoyance than it is a benefit. How many times have you 1) dropped the extra pennies in the “Take-a-penny-leave-a-penny” tray? How many times have you told the attendant to keep the pennies? How many times have you lost some cents in the car/couch/outside/etc. and did not even care it was gone? Do you have a change jar that is full of pennies that you haven’t used?

Things like this make me feel that the US cent piece is now useless and should disappear.

Price for Manufacture

How much does it cost to make a penny? The US Mint reports that it costs $0.018 to manufacture a one cent piece in their 2010 Annual Report. So it’s almost double the value of the cent. This may sound crazy at the onset. But it is justified since a single cent will circulate hundreds-to-thousands of times before leaving circulation. This justifies the cost, but should it? In times of wasteful government spending, should we be doing something like this? The cost of raw materials alone costs approximately 1/2 a cent. That doesn’t leave much for manufacturing costs. Meaning $0.013 is wrapped in the cost to manufacture alone. I would bet this doesn’t include all the time and cost spent by the artists that changed the penny design in 2010, but is probably small due to the manufacture of millions of these cent pieces. Some argue that the cost to the Federal Reserve of handling and transporting these pennies aren’t included in the Mint’s cost reports. This means the actual cost could be more!

This could be justification enough. But I’d argue it isn’t.

Cost of Transaction

Walgreens and the National Association of Convenience Stores reported that the average teller spends 2-2.5 seconds longer per transaction when pennies are involved. So we take the average income of a full-time worker: $39,509 as of 2006 from Wikipedia’s article on Personal Income in the US and calculate what they make per second.

$39,509 / 261 days / 8 hours / 60 minutes / 60 seconds = $0.005256 / second

Now assume that the teller will handle 2 cash transactions per day that includes pennies, every day since these are not weekday only establishments:

$0.005256 * 2.25 seconds * 2 time/day * 365 days = $8.63 / year

You can also think about that in terms of your cost. When you pay cash, or like me calculate tips up to an even number, using pennies cost you as well. So figure you do this once a day, and say you earn twice as much, then you are spending $8.63 a year just using pennies.

Proposal: Round to nearest Nickel

What that means is that sometimes you’ll pay $0.02 more for your purchase, but sometimes you’ll pay $0.02 less. Most people fear that you’ll most often round up than round down. This isn’t the case. A study from Wake Forest shows that the consumer would actually gain roughly one cent per 40 transactions which is basically zero.

I do believe retailers would negate that by adjusting prices accordingly, though. They cannot account for every combination of purchase a consumer could possibly make, but the few items that most often sell by themselves. For instance, a sport water bottle might be an item that is purchased individually most often so it’s price would reflect a rounding up. So in Texas what was previously priced as $0.99 w/tax making it $1.07 (costing the consumer a $1.05) the retailers would start pricing it at an even $1.00 making it $1.08 after tax rounding up to $1.10. This might help the $0.01 per 40 transaction bit, but is instantly negated when the consumer buys something with that water bottle.

But remember the cost of using pennies? Say the retailers tip the margins in their favor. $0.01 per 40 transactions is a loss to the consumer. So 1 transaction/day for one year is roughly $0.09 lost for a year. Take that from your $8.63 gained by not using pennies, and you are still up $8.54 a year. Retailers would have to change the scales to roughly one cent for every 2 transaction. Due to the infinite combinations of possible purchases, retailers would have to cheat to enact this type of balance.

Side Benefit, The $1.00 Coin

Becoming more popular is the Dollar coin. Most vending machines these days take dollar coins and even $5.00 bills. Granted, many people don’t want another coin, but if you are taking one away replacing it with one more useful is a much better alternative. In fact, the Federal Reserve estimates that dropping the $1.00 bill for a $1.00 coin will save the US $184 million / year.

Possible Tax Benefit?

So for years people have been arguing over the fact that people hate an income tax and we should move towards a consumption tax. Get tax for what you buy, not what you earned. This could be a stepping stone in that direction. Instead of round to the nearest nickel, why not round up to the next nickel? Then all money generated by this Rounding Tax is part of a federal tax. Then you can see a drop in your income tax and on average not see much hit against your pocketbook.

When it is attached to all transactions, you shouldn’t have to worry about hitting poorer people the most. In fact, the less they purchase the less impact they’ll see against them. The government should counter this by reducing income taxes at a median level. So poorer people might see a benefit rather than a negative impact.

So What’s Stopping Us?

So why aren’t we dropping the penny’s production tomorrow? First there are powerful lobbyist trying to stop this. Why? The “Americans for Common Cents” is a pro-penny lobby that is funded by the Zinc industry. The penny is 97.5% zinc. These metals manufacturers don’t want to see one of their largest suppliers disappear. But this is an easy fix. I bet you didn’t know that according to the US Mint report the five-cent piece costs roughly $0.09 to manufacture. Wow! A nickel’s raw material value is roughly $0.06 per unit. So we fix that by “making the penny a nickel”. Take the one-cent’s material cost ($0.005), double it to make a bigger coin ($0.01), add the five-cent’s assumed non-material related costs ($0.033), and you have a new nickel that costs $0.043 and is made from primarily zinc. So the Zinc industry is happy to see their mateiral still being purchased, Americans are happy to see we no longer make coins that cost more than they are worth, and we’ve saved tax money along the way!

So moving to a $1.00 coin hurts the paper industry? Yes. In fact, Senators Brown and Kerry have introduced a bill to stop $1.00 coin manufacturing if there is a surplus. Why? Because in their constituency is Crane & Co. the sole-supplier of paper for dollar production. Yes someone suffers, but I think we’ve minimized the pain here. One company sees a drop in sales where an entire metal industry doesn’t see a drop. Pick your pains.

<TL/DR> This YouTube video pretty much sums up everything I said above. It adds that removing currency has happened before with the Half Cent, which had buying power closer to the dime of today. It also shows that countries and the US Military have already removed the One Cent, rounding costs to the nearest Five Cents. It doesn’t include the difficulty with the Zinc manufacturers. View here:

Edited: 2012-01-14 22:36