A couple days ago, as a thanks for my participation, 23andMe gave me a code for a free Complete Kit, a $499 value. I toyed with the idea of which person in my family I was going to get to spit. I had this whole elaborate plan of finding one of my moms dad’s brothers sons and getting them to do it but then I figured, there is someone out there that needs this more.

So I’m giving it away. A Complete Kit includes (copying and pasting from the 23andMe website here):

• Ancestry

  • Relative Finder
  • Maternal Line
  • Paternal Line (for men only)
  • Ancestry Painting
  • Global Similarity

• Health (156 reports)

  • Carrier Status (24)
  • Disease Risk (81)
  • Drug Response (17)
  • Traits (34)

• Download your raw data

  Download your mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA data, as well as data for nearly 600,000 other positions.

Enter by posting a comment on this blog post stating how a complete genotyping from 23andMe would benefit you. Entries will be accepted until June 17, 2010 11:59 PM PDT. I’ll post the winner on June 18.

The End. Have a happy summer people!

Disclaimers and other stuff:
Winner will be chosen at random (using a number generated at http://www.random.org/). This giveaway was not requested by or endorsed by 23andMe. My employer is an investor in 23andMe however, the views reflected in this post are mine alone and do not reflect the views of my employer. My employer is not a party to this giveaway nor does it endorse this giveaway, nor have I asked it to.

Happy 2010 by teapotqueen

Happy New Year Peeps!

Make this decade a good one!

Oh Microsoft.

Who did you have vetting your Windows 7 party participants? I know you didn’t let everyone play because I know several people who applied and didn’t get selected. Yet, for some reason, you chose me?

Me who works at a company that your upper management seems to want to obliterate?

Me who publicly derides Windows whenever the mood fancies?

You could have Binged me and found out all this stuff yet still, somehow, you decided that I’d be a good person to throw a forced promotion party for your new OS (or is it a Service Pack with a shiny new title).

I’ll be the first to admit, I signed up for it. See my mom just got a new computer with Windows Vista. She hates Vista. Like, a lot. I promise I had nothing to do with that but you should have seen the smile on my face when she called and told me so. She repeats it too. Anytime we’re talking about her computers, she tells me. Even went so far as to have me put “Om-boo-tu” on her older computer with Vista just so she didn’t have to deal with it anymore. Promise. So when I got the opportunity to maybe give her a version of Windows she didn’t despise (for free!), I didn’t pass it up.

So here we are. You’ve selected me. I am a woman of my word so I will have the party.  We may even discuss Windows 7. Like so “thanks for the playing cards Windows 7! I’m all in” or “thanks for the fancy tote bag Windows 7. It’s perfect for my gym shoes!”

Anyway, I know you’re looking for promotion with this whole thing so far be it from me to begrudge you your shine. Here, I will unbox this party pack you sent me. You’re welcome.

[pie left]

Windows 7 Box

Box

It's here!

It's some junk in a box!

Nope, not fake.

Random crap from various vendors that I'm supposed to give party guests.

Puzzle and Playing cards. I'm thinking poker.

Centerpiece, Napkins, Balloons, Streamers

Letter, Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition (wtf?) 32bit and 64bit versions.

Poster.

Party bags for guests to put the crap from vendors I'm supposed to shill.

The whole shebang, minus box.

[/pie]

So there it is. Thanks Microsoft?

I work in operations at Google which means my work doesn’t usually result in the stuff you see and use every day. Well it does in a very indirect manner but that’s just semantics. Anyway, aside from a Gmail theme (Cherry Blossom if you’re wondering), stuff I do never sees the light of day outside the walls of Google.

With that said, ladies and germs, girls and boys, I will now take this rare opportunity to present to you, Yet Another Erica Created Theme: Large Type.

This theme is for Google Spreadsheets forms and was recently launched with a host of other spreadsheet form themes you can use. Check it out:

Check out this page if you’d like to learn how to add a theme to your form.

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Yep, that’s my mom being scared of Conficker. Sooooo annoying since I set up a Ubuntu machine in her office when her other computer was “slow” (it just needed more RAM). She wouldn’t use it because it didn’t have MS Office on it.

Can you tell how aggravated this makes me?

Look: >:-| This is my angry face.

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So California can’t afford to pay tax refunds. It is instead looking into delaying tax refund checks or issuing IOUs. 2 ways this seems entirely fucked to me:

1. A tax refund is money you overpaid in taxes. The govt shouldn’t spend money that doesn’t rightfully belong to them. To be fair, the govt shouldn’t even be getting anymore money than the proper amount of tax. Why do we have income tax again? Oh right, to pay for wars. I wonder what wars any of the states that collect income tax will be fighting.
2. If California issues IOUs (or checks since they’re both pieces of paper guaranteeing money) why would any bank honor these pieces of paper? They know that California has a $42 billion dollar deficit. Imagine you write a check to someone and the bank knows you have a -$4,200 balance. You think they’d cash the check? Hell no.

Expanding on thought #2, I highly doubt that banks aren’t going to cash the checks/IOUs as chaos would quickly ensue (more on this thought later). So banks will knowingly accept a less than worthless (worthnegative?) piece of paper thereby extending an unwritten, unguaranteed loan to the state of California.

We know California is broke right? What happens if they don’t pay the banks back for these IOUs? Last year Cali paid out $10.7 billion in tax refunds. After the bank bailout and ensuing bankruptcies, I don’t think any bank can afford to be stiffed on a billion dollar loan (we’ll assume most of the refunds will end up in ~10 banks because we can).

See the cycle here? The loans and the debts go round and round because nobody wants to let stuff hit ground. Returning to that bit about banks not cashing the IOUs, I would welcome the resultant chaos if it would ultimately lead to true market correction.

People are talking a lot about the economy “bouncing back” to which I say bullshit. There is nothing to “bounce back” too. That joyride we were having for the last few years was just Monopoly money. Once you take all the pretend money out of the equation, we’re right where we’re supposed to be. Unfortunately all sorts of businesses made big bets on debt and lending and are now feeling the pain.

BUT WAIT!

Government to the rescue, ready to print more real money backed by nothing thereby devaluing the real money you already have. Why? So these businesses that made bad bets don’t crash.

The free market can’t really work if the government is going to rescue businesses that don’t do well.

Pop quiz:

You have a car that you use to get around and also cart around your little sister for your parents. You total your car while driving recklessly. You still seem committed to driving recklessly even after you’ve crashed. Your parents:

A) Give you another car.
B) Tell you to save up and buy another on your own.

Makes less sense when put that way right?

Oh but what about the jobs of the people? Won’t you think of the people? The fact is, business is just a big bet. When you go to work for a company, you’re saying that you trust the company won’t fail. You’re making a bet on the business just like the owners are. While we like to think jobs are guaranteed, they are not.

This all goes back to the lack of responsibility and consequences. For some reason, our nation has been moving toward a mindset that consequences don’t exist, that someone will be there to pick you up will you fall.

Sorry, that was a tangent. Money?

So this whole cycle of debt business? It has to stop. Let the value of homes fall (sorry homeowners) since their pricing and value was based on fake money. This will make it so people don’t have to go into significant debt to buy a home.

College tuition should not be what it is. Kids should not have to start their adult lives by piling on debt. I mean, what IS that? “Well kids, you’re 18 now, and since most people need a college degree to have a career you should go to college. Here’s $40,000 in debt to start you off.”

More debt.

I disagree with the notion that anything worth having requires you be in significant debt but that is the notion that has been fueling our society and bubble based economy for the last decade or so. Maybe more? Probably.

Personally, I want this whole house of cards to fall so the value of things can be adjusted to their value based on real money and not debt based money. Do I think that will happen? No. Chaos, remember? People would go nuts because while the market was correcting itself, we’d look like we were in a recession (depression?) and all the fake money would go away and then the govt would step in and…

…oh wait.

Well until that whole govt-stepping-in-to-catch-the-economy-when-it-falls stuff stops, we’re fucked. The cycle will perpetuate because the market will never be able to correct itself.

I’m done rambling about this now.

Disclaimers: I fix computers not money for a living, these are just my based on common sense thoughts. The place where I fix computers has no idea I have these crazy thoughts about money so these words are mine, not theirs.

Daemon is now available in Kindle format. FTW!

Today Daemon by Daniel Suarez was released as a hardback book in many major bookstores.

You want this book.

You need this book.

Go forth and purchase one for yourself or more importantly, for the person in your life who doesn’t understand the importance of information security.

A brief synopsis:

Confronted with a killer from beyond the grave, Detective Peter Sebeck comes face-to-face with the full implications of our increasingly complex and interconnected world—one where the dead can read headlines, steal identities, and carry out far-reaching plans without fear of retribution.

Sebeck must find a way to stop Sobol’s web of programs—his Daemon—before it achieves its ultimate purpose. And to do so, he must uncover what that purpose is. But Sobol has his own plans for Sebeck.

Daemon looks at what could possibly happen tomorrow by utilizing the power of voice recognition technology, artificial intelligence, game theory, sonic weapons, automated vehicles and zombie computers in conjunction with each other.

See? I told you that you wanted this book.

Thank you, Seinfeld writers, for your contribution to society.

Muffin top pans are available on Amazon.
Search for em.

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I’d like to be more calm but my current source of peace (my boyfriend whom I will refer to as The Astronaut now and in the future) has seen fit to spend the evening playing Rock Band with his friend. I am none too pleased about that but there isn’t anything I can do about it, what with him living where he does. The relationship is a fairly new development and I’d normally be concerned about typing about it here, however rum tends to make those inhibitions go away.

It’s going to be interesting to maintain a long distance relationship as I’d previously sworn them off. Luckily the Astronaut is a nerd geek like me and we’ve recently discovered the goodness of video on iChat. We’d attempted this using YIM’s video function but it was too laggy and choppy, not to mention YIM’s penchant for disconnecting on his side. iChat was a much better experience overall.

Oh dear, I put valerian in my tea and am now feeling drowsy. Time for sleep.

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