Thoughts on 2020

Nothing sums up America 2020 quite like Floyd’s “I can’t breathe!” Both in his physical experience, to those experiences of disenfranchised groups, to the planet facing climate change, to California's rampaging wildfires, and those who caught COVID-19. Every day more than a 9/11's worth Americans have among their last thoughts, that they can no longer breathe.

There are too many science deniers, which to me is also like a denial of reality. A smartphone is a triumph of science and engineering, of millions of man-hours putting a supercomputer in the palm of your hand, FaceID can find its origins from Einstein's 1921 Nobel prize winning photoelectric effect. STEM is making your Zoom call happen, to getting you an Amazon order. And in a year where science denial seems amplified, it is to science that we look to to find a vaccine.

This is the world without ONE vaccine. It took unprecedented effort to unlock a vaccine, for a virus whose genetic code was sequenced in 3 days, to a mRNA vaccine designed in 2 days, to safety testing that showed 90+% efficacy - which was beyond our wildest dreams, the way forward is now a logistics problem. This is one that is solvable, though it wasn't properly addressed by our leadership, among other failures, but the vaccine is the path to a return to normalcy. It is hope.

59S Professional UVC LED Mini Sterilizer X1

With COVID, there are a few obvious best practices, the 3 Ws. They are the triumvirate that gives you protection if you have to out.

• Wear a mask.
• Wash your hands.
• Watch your distance, i.e. social distancing.

Early on, there was a recommendation to wipe down groceries with disinfecting wipes and surfaces to prevent transmission via surfaces. I think at this point, this is less of a concern since the new information shows that it is transmitted via droplets from person-to-person.

If you're like me, I'm a bit extra paranoid. I did a fair amount of research on how to disinfect smaller items, like a phone, or keys, or other things and one of the things I preferred was to find a UV-C based solution. 

UV-C is a wavelength of light in the 250-280 nm range that doesn't make it through the atmosphere. For good reason! It is bad for you. Really bad actually. But it's also really bad for viruses. 

A little more background. Munchkin is a company that makes kid products, and they make a small version made for sanitizing baby stuff, like a pacifier. This is what it looks like. Not bad but pretty darn small.

After some digging, I found that 59S is the company they partnered with that specializes in UV-C LEDs for sanitization.

This is what I ended up picking: 59S UV-C Mini Sterilizer X1. 

Why did I pick this? A friend said, if 59S is good enough for Munchkin, which is a pretty well known brand, then it's pretty trustworthy. 

Here's what I like:

• Micro-USB - easy to recharge, ubiquitous cable 
• Rechargeable Li-ion battery - IIRC, this one can run 10 minutes before needing a recharge
• Highly portable - you can keep it at home, but I like that you can bring it
• Flexible - with this version, I wasn't purely limited to the "box" included like the Munchkin pictured above. 
• Gyroscope to detect if it is upside down (i.e. facing you) that makes it shut off. I haven't tested this though.
• One button for 59 second disinfection.
• One button for 180 second disinfection.

One drawback: if you want longer than 180 seconds, you're going to have to press it each time. Holding the 180 second button just makes the unit power off completely.

Aluminum foil has nearly 100% reflectivity of the UVC spectrum so I took a small shoebox and lined it with aluminum foil so that I could use it for more than just a phone like the above picture.

Here's how it turned out.

For most of it, I cut cardboard and wrapped the foil around it, then taped the foil as tight as possible and inserted inside the box. For the lid, you can see it's taped directly. I wasn't as careful about the lid because any reflection off the lid is at least the second bounce of light and the intensity drops rapidly with distance.

Now with the UV light placed on top.

And now from the inside.

And there you have it. A portable UV-C cleaning box. I think it's probably not wise to go much bigger than this because there simply aren't enough diodes and exposure. 

Links included are affiliate links.

A post? An actual post?

Trying to get going again. The past year, work has been crazy, and then since the start of the new year, there's COVID, well, I'm sure you get it. In any case, figure I'll try to get some new posts up. 

Been too long...

Wow, it's been almost a year since my last post. Got to get going again!

Thoughts On 529 Plans

"You can lose a lot of things, but no one can take away the knowledge you gained."

- Dr. B. Roberds 

My parents told me that if nothing else, they did what they could to provide a good education to me.  For that I am grateful.  I also think about the quote above, which came from one of my former bosses.  Along that vein, I'd like to provide the opportunity for knowledge to my kid.  To me, this means college and beyond.

Brief primer on 529 plans: they are a nice way to save money for college. After-tax money can be invested and can grow tax-free, plus the money won't be taxed if used for a qualifying expense such as college, or more recently, even lower grade schools (K-12.)  There is also no limit to the length of time a 529 plan can be held.  For compounding, this is huge, and this doesn't even take into account "529 super-funding" that rich people can take advantage of!

Here's the game, how can you maximize the benefits?

Let's assume you have a kid and open a 529 account, and you do what you can to contribute the yearly maximum to it, which for some is already a stretch.  Here's one reason example of why it might be worth the trouble.

Example:

• Maximum contributions are made at the beginning of each year and the market grows, the rate I chose is 6%.  
• Caveat 1: 529 plans have limits to contributions once an account reaches a certain limit. I think that limit is $300k currently (plan-dependent) which is still quite a lot. Presumably, once the beneficiary goes to college and starts to spend it down, contributions could begin again.
• Caveat 2: the table below uses the tuition of a public university, in this case UCLA, semi-randomly picked as a desirable place to attend, with strong academics, but not the cheapest public university.
• Kid goes to college at year 19.  For simplicity in this example, goes to graduate school right after.  
• The assumption here is that the graduate program is not a business or medical school, which could result in much higher costs and additional school time like med school.
• Consider the following, assuming one could make the maximum contribution and the market returns at 6% and college tuition inflation rate as 4%.  Click here for larger version.

After graduation, there's money left over.

• It's possible that the kid doesn't spend it all!  

Firstly, here is where there is a problem.  A parent who designated a child as the beneficiary can designate another beneficiary as long as it's the equivalent generation as the child, like a sibling, or a first cousin.  

You can't re-designate yourself (as a beneficiary) to a grandchild without triggering something called the generation-skipping gift tax.

• If kid never has grandkid, unless you have another "member of the family" beneficiary to designate to, then you're boned, the tax penalty is waiting.

But!  This is where the game gets interesting.

What's unclear to me is, and my own research has not borne an answer to my satisfaction: 

• If the child is the beneficiary, graduates, then lets the account continue to grow, can said child (or account owner) designate the grandchild as a new beneficiary without the generation skipping gift tax? 

The consequences are:

• If not, it becomes important not to overfund a 529 plan, otherwise withdrawal comes with tax penalties.

• If yes, then overfunding a 529 plan might be really advantageous, such as continuing contributions for said child after graduation but prior to grandchild, thus funding multiple generations worth of college expenses through the power of compounding.  
• Based on this, it might be possible!  Which means, I need to do more research.

I took the following snippet from the link above and it applies to this whole post:

This information does not constitute tax advice and is provided for informational purposes only. Please consult your tax advisor, financial advisor, local taxing authority, and/or plan provider or sponsor for more information.

Star Trek: Voyager

After finishing The Wire, I was a little lost as to what to watch next.  It's hard to pick a new show to watch when finished with one is as good as The Wire.  That said, I picked Star Trek: Voyager.  Like with other Star Trek series, I never watched this chronologically, so here we go!

In general, I believe I prefer serialized shows over episodic ones, which might be why I like DS9 so much.  That is how Voyager is from the outset, it seems.

Watching the first season now, I am reminded of my earlier thoughts about Harry Kim when I watched the show on TV years ago; he keeps getting screwed over!  Which sucks.  However, I do like seeing Captain Janeway in charge, and how it ties with DS9 but with the Maquis and the Starfleet crews having to work together rather than as enemies, and even The Doctor (medical hologram) tying back to the original doctor's visit to DS9.  Fun little tie-ins.

So far there have already been some fun and interesting episodes, while at the same time, the DW thinks that Voyager is more "physics-y."  Sounds good to me.

The Wire

This show is so good.  So damn good.  I'm on the first season about 10 episodes in and it's fantastic.  It's a slow burn at first, then builds.  There's a reason this show was rated the 2nd best show of all time by Rolling Stone.  Deservedly so.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I've been watching a lot of ST:DS9 lately and I must say, it's really good.  It's not the same as ST:TNG, less exploration, but I really like the storyline that presents the Dominion as a lurking threat throughout all the seasons.  It's almost more like Babylon 5 than Star Trek.  It's one of the things that I always thought was missing from TNG.  The Borg was there but it didn't pay off as I'd hoped.

The first few seasons of DS9 let you get to know the characters, understand their relationships and grow to care for them, but after season 4 though, the series really heats up with the threat of open war.  I'm on to season 6 now!  I also think it's so great to have a diverse cast of lead characters.  Worf, Sisko, Dax, Quark, Odo and Kira, Dukat, all are great.  Can't wait to see how this all plays out.

I'm eyeing the next series to see, and though I've got ST: Voyager and others in the watchlist, I think I'll be diving into The Wire next.  I mean, it's only one of the best series ever, right?

TEP Wireless Hotspot

I had a recent business trip to Europe and needed internet access for email, texting via Google Voice, maps, Whatsapp, etc.  At first I tried to add it to my prepaid plan, but my plan is so cheap that it doesn't even qualify for the option to add international data and texting, even for a short period. 

Enter Tep Wireless.  The process was pretty simple and I rented it for a week.  About 3 days before my scheduled trip, I received it in the mail and fired it up and was able to connect my phone to it directly.  The hotspot was set to work in Europe, so it had no internet yet at my home until it was activated for the first day of my trip.  The package also came with an envelope to send back the hotspot when I returned home.

Pleasant surprise: The hotspot itself came in with a charger that is built with an international power plug adapter with a plug in port and a USB-out to charge the hotspot.  This came in quite handy at the hotel to plug in the work laptop.

Coverage: For the most part, data access was decently quick, ~11Mbps download, and worked in most of the places I went, certain dead zones appeared as would any mobile device would see.  Everything that I needed to work, worked.  There was a few hours where the hotel wifi wasn't working, but I was able to use Whatsapp and video call the family with the Tep hotspot without any significant slowdown or issue.  Color me quite satisfied.

Battery life: depends a little on your data use, but after about 6 hrs of moderate use the device went from 100% -> 30%.  I had my Anker Powerbank with me to charge it back and keep me connected through my workday without any problems.  When charging and using data, the device could get pretty warm, as expected.

Price: At about $9/day, the price is pretty reasonable, especially if you travel with multiple people with many devices (phone, tablet, etc).

One drawback that I noticed, the hotspot is a little slow to boot up.  Meaning, it will take a minute or two to turn on, boot up, find connection, and connect your devices.  Once I realized this, I opted to keep it on most of the time and have it connected to the power bank to charge periodically rather than deal with the wait to start it up.

Overall, this device is pretty good for travel, especially if you have multiple devices to connect and would rather not pay for adding international text and data to your cell phone plan.  I would definitely look into using this again, even for personal use.

Favorite Chips

Was musing the other day about the various salty chips/snacks that I like and came up with this list. These are my top 5.

• Doritos Spicy Nacho
• Lay's Sour Cream and Onion
• Tim's Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion
• Ruffles All Dressed (Canadian version)
• Cape Cod Original

Fitbit Charge HR

After about a year and a half since getting a Fitbit Charge HR, the fitness tracker has given up.  I received it as a Christmas present, and was pretty happy with it.  Steps tracking was fine, HR monitoring was usually high by 10-15% but not a big deal.  Good community, I enjoyed getting cheers or taunts from my friends who also had Fitbits.  The integration with other apps is good too!

That is, until the last 6 months, when a bubbling issue in the band crept up.  My fault for not immediately contacting Fitbit about it, but my 1 year warranty lapsed before I could contact them for a replacement.  Now I know from the forums that it is a known, repeatable issue.  What I didn't know is that the bubbling would later become catastrophic for the device.  I figured I could live with it.

The band itself is attached to the tracker plastic, maybe with an adhesive.  The band is a rubber material that will expand gradually over time, with heat and exposure to daily use.  Thus, the bubbling is an inevitable occurrence.  Bad design choice.

A few weeks ago, the band had release almost entirely, revealing a slightly cracked plastic interior body of the tracker.  Bad.  Weirdly, I did not see any adhesive or cohesive failure on the widest part of the band, where more glue would have definitely helped.  Bad.  Then, last week, the last vestige of connection between the band and tracker gave up.  Again, no obvious adhesive/cohesive failure from epoxy.  Did Fitbit just press the band to the tracker together thinking this would work and last?

I tried to fix it all with Krazy Glue, which adhered the band and plastic exterior of the tracker just fine, until a day and half later where the plastic interior portion (previously cracked) also broke.

The plastic body was also attached to the PCB, see above.  Broken plastic, bent PCB, broken tracker. Wouldn't even Charge anymore.  All in all, $130 worth of Fitbit Charge HR fitness tracker is pretty much dead.  Sadly, a poor purchase choice, wish these issues were something that could've been mentioned in the review articles that I read, but long-term use is rarely a topic.  Lesson learned, check the forums for a gadget ahead of time before deciding to purchase.  This doesn't work if you're an early adopter though (which I was not.)

Looking at the Charge 2, I see similar design and would definitely not pick one up.  Would not recommend.

Initially, I'd give this 4/5 stars for the community and software integration, but with these hardware issues, I'd have to say, 1/5 because reliability and longevity have to be considerations for an item >$100.  This thing didn't even last as long as a phone.

Ready, Player One

I just finished this book, and I can say it's tons of fun.  It's an easy read, and the reviews do tell you everything you need to know to get into it.  I like the sense of adventure and virtual reality, and all the pop culture references, especially given that we're seeing more and more VR/AR nowadays.  It has some interesting commentary about the way things are in this world, and even offers a believable, if a little scary, future.

Some of the references to pop culture in the 80s were lost on me, but that doesn't really take away from the sense of fun in the book.  Many of the games are also too old for me to have any real experience playing them, whatever, this is fun.

Definitely worth reading.  5 out of 5.

Warriors Game 5

I will never forget Warriors-Cavaliers Game 5.  You see, normally, Little Ender doesn't let me watch these games, because if the TV is on, it's usually for his Youtube videos, or Daniel Tiger, or Thomas the Train.  I usually ask, "Can Daddy watch the game?"  LE will say, "No! I watch...(insert kid show.)"

Except this time, midway through the first quarter, Warriors down 6, I asked, "Can Daddy watch the game?"  LE, "Yes!"  Then he grabbed my hand, pulled me to the couch and I turned on the game.  LE said, "We clap?" and I said, "Yes!"  Now that I think about it, he probably remembered watching the thrilling last 5 minutes of Game 3 with me a few days ago, and enjoyed all the screaming and yelling that we were doing for that one.

Then we watched.  With every Warrior bucket, I clapped, or cheered, and this made LE clap and cheer with me.  We developed a little routine, big bucket, "yay!" and claps, high ten, and a hug. Gradually the Warriors made their run in the 2nd quarter, and LE followed his routine with the whole family.  It was fantastic.  He was jumping up and down and screaming "yay!"

He probably won't remember seeing any of these finals, just like he won't remember watching Madison Bumgarner and his epic World Series performance a couple years ago, or the Warriors first title run, but maybe he'll remember the feeling of excitement, of shared joy.  More of those please.

Go Dubs!

ST: TNG Measure of a Man

As I continue to plow through ST: TNG episodes, much of the 1st and 2nd season are new to me.  I got to say, "Measure of a Man" is one of my favorite episodes.  Maybe it's the technological advances in AI in recent years; how far away are we from an android like Data, centuries, decades?  Will we even last that long?  Maybe it's the political climate and our orange god emperor, who doesn't even remember the context of the Civil War, but this episode gave me the feels.  This interaction between Picard and Guinan that was the impetus for Picard's defense was great.  Whoopi was fantastic.

"Consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do, because it's too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable? You don't have to think about their welfare; you don't think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people."
"You're talking about slavery."
"I think that's a little harsh."
"I don't think that's a little harsh, I think that's the truth. But that's a truth that we have obscured behind a... comfortable, easy euphemism. 'Property'. But that's not the issue at all, is it?"
- Guinan and Picard

This episode is about identifying the worth of an android, meanwhile, we are still struggling with attaching worth to actual humans.

Parenting and Finance

I thought this post was worth sharing, in highlights, the subject is with regard to savings accounts for kids. Taken from here, emphasis mine:

"You have 16 years to teach him your values about education, how to treat others, money, responsibility, what words are inappropriate, table manners, etc. It's all a package. You can either have faith in your own ability as parents or not."

It can be so easy to question one's own parenting skills, but I guess it's also important to remember that our parents were able to do so, and lucky as we are to have good parents, we are doubly lucky to have a model/method to follow from our own experiences.

"Maybe I was naive and lucky, but I never considered not telling my children about their savings or not removing myself as custodian when they reached 18. My children knew from about the age of six (they were told before, but might not have understood the concepts) that we were saving money for them to go to college. Either then or by ten, they knew it was "their money," but they were expected to use it for college. By twelve, they knew the word "disinherited." Of course we never talked to them about going to college, only about going to graduate or professional school. [You shouldn't have to explain the benefits of going to middle school, and we treated going to college the same way - it's just another step along your path.]"

I thought that this was an interesting approach and I found it quite clever.  I actually agree with it, except I have concerns about putting implied pressure (internal within the child, or external from parents) on the child to get into a graduate / professional program.  Now that I think about it, this might have been what my parents did with me!  Hmm...having said all that, one can only push a child so far before they have to go forth on their own.

"I always thought honesty was a good policy, and children learn by what you do as much as by what you say. That's just one reason why I wouldn't hide the account if I were you."

The first part is a no-brainer.  The whole post is a good reminder of things to consider.  Lots for me to think about.

Star Trek: TNG

Just saying how awesome Amazon Prime is, I get to binge on Star Trek TNG from the beginning, which I have never actually watched in order before.

An Algorithm for Happiness

An interesting, insightful video.  It strikes me as something similar to the saying of "it's about wanting what you have, not having what you want," but takes it a step further.

His philosophy can apply to personal finance, saving money, and so many other things, simply living life and understanding happiness.  I can definitely understand how developing this philosophy probably helped him to move forward after the passing of his son, which sounded heart-breaking and really struck home for me.  It reminds me to take joy in the everyday and the time that I can spend with Little Ender.

Saga - update

Damn, this is a good series.  Like, really, really good.  Twists and turns, this comic is no holds barred and definitely not for kids.  This is especially so for the most recent volume that I read, Volume 7.  I laughed when I turned to page only to see a very graphic depiction of Mr. Robot Prince masturbating to thoughts of various women including his target/our heroine.  It totally caught me off guard.

I honestly can't wait for the next volume, especially in light of what happened at the end of this one. Arggggh!

In other news, I watched the final episode of Naruto Shippuden (episode 500) on Crunchyroll.  Oh, the feels.  I felt the same sadness when I finished the manga a year (or two?) earlier, albeit, less so because I knew this was a long time coming.  I'm not sure if I will watch any of Boruto, we'll see. Attack on Titan, Season 2 is coming, but I'll probably wait until it's finished before I sign up for Crunchyroll Premium again.  The Crunchyroll add-on for Kodi only works for Premium users, but it definitely worked great!

Just A Photo

Took this photo while on vacation.  Pretty nice!  Smartphone cameras are pretty damn good these days, taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7.  No, not the one that blows up.

Xtreme Comforts Bamboo Pillow Review

I had a memory foam pillow I tried from Costco, it was nice.  It was comfy.  I don't use it anymore for good reason.

Little did I know how important a feature it is for a memory foam pillow to be fully machine washable.  Seriously.  Little Ender (LE) really likes whatever pillow we use, and not the kid-sized one we bought for him, which is fine and dandy; until he gets sick and vomits all over your pillow.  Your memory foam pillow that ISN'T machine washable.  How the heck are you supposed to "spot clean" vomit?  Also, did you know memory foam acts like a sponge?

Desperate, I jumped on Sweethome and found the Xtreme Comforts Bamboo Pillow.  In short, it works.  It's quite supportive, and smells only a little bit, initially, gone in 24 hours depending how sensitive you are to these things.  It arrives in a sushi-like package, and then you rip open the plastic and it unfurls and expands.  Fluff it up, smash the heck out of it, or toss it in the dryer for a bit to spread out the shredded memory foam and you can sleep on it the first night.  Works great!  Until the pillow gets stolen by the wife.  Which then gets stolen by LE.  So now...we have 3 of these because other pillows were forcibly phased out by wear and tear, or LE's vomit.  Ah, the joys of daycare.

Standard size, queen size, and slim (for Little Ender.)  Get the slim if you're a stomach sleeper.

Now I can rest easy (ha) knowing if I have another emergency cleaning session, it's as easy as tossing them in the washer.

We took an extra step and got some waterproof pillow protectors too.  Because even though the pillows are easily washable, it's better not to have to wash them every time.  Worth it.