Some interesting stuff on Skype :
Category: internet
Rent vs. Buy
I’ve been plugging a lot of numbers into this Rent vs. Buy Calculator, and most of the scenarios I come up with point me towards continuing to rent. The big variable is the expected appreciation of the home you’re theoretically buying. There’s no real way of knowing that, of course. If I pick a conservative value, like 2% or 4%, it usually comes back telling me I should continue renting. If I assume a 10% annual appreciation, and I stick with the place for 10+ years, then it tells me I might want to buy.
This calculator, on the other hand, is pointing me towards buying over renting in most scenarios. It’s taking into account a number of variables that the other one doesn’t ask for. Who really knows what calculations they’re doing behind the scenes, though. I guess I need to do some more reading.
Modern Drunkard Magazine Online
I’m not sure if I should be taking this website seriously or not. It’s pretty funny, either way. And they actually do have a point or two to make.
Robert Hensing’s Incident Response WebLog
Here’s an interesting security-related blog from a Microsoft guy. I’m starting to see a lot more in-depth security stuff in blogs. The ISC handler’s diary is always interesting, for instance.
The new MSN search
Walt Mossberg thinks the new MSN search isn’t quite as good as Google, and I tend to agree.
Searching for Andrew Huey on Google, for instance, finds my home page, and my Amazon page, no problem, along with a bunch of pages related to other Andrew Hueys.
Seaching my name on MSN though, comes up with a pretty weird result list. The very first link has neither Andrew nor Huey in it anywhere, as far as I can tell. It’s a pretty interesting quote, though.
No More Palm.Net
Palm.Net to cease 31 August: I discontinued my Palm.Net account some time ago, but I still have my Palm i705. I guess the antenna is officially useless now. Oh well. The web service on my cell phone is pretty bad. Time to switch to a Treo 600 maybe?
Mozilla add-ins
Yahoo Mail Plus
Yahoo! Mail Plus now gives me pretty everything I would have wanted out of Yahoo mail. And the $20/year price is reasonable. Unfortunately, they didn’t introduce it until after I’d moved everything over to Gmail.
Gmail
I’ve got a few Gmail invites, if anyone wants an account.
Gmail
Perhaps I should swap my Gmail account for a picture of Gary Coleman’s head or this guy’s vote in the next election or lunch at the Carnegie deli. Or not. Geez, it’s just an e-mail account.