I use the Unix utility screen to do my work. screen runs on my desktop which is always on and always connected to the Internet. I log into this machine's X windows console, and I also SSH to it from my laptop (sometimes I'm in very low bandwidth scenarios which is why I prefer screen to fancy solutions like VNC or NX).

Each time I log in, I can resume my terminals, but my DISPLAY enviornment variable is set wrong. Even more annoying, each time I start a new terminal in the screen session, it gets a DISPLAY variable based on the location I first started screen. How frustrating.

A while back, I wrote a wrapper script (I called it xscreen) around screen which did the following:

#!/bin/sh

RESETX=~/.resetx

rm -f ${RESETX}
echo "export DISPLAY=${DISPLAY}" > ${RESETX}

if env | grep -q XAUTHORITY; then
   echo "export XAUTHORITY=${XAUTHORITY}" >> ${RESETX}
else
   echo "unset XAUTHORITY" >> ${RESETX}
fi

screen "$@"

Basically, this script dumped the correct values of DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY into a script before launching screen. I could then source ~/.resetx and I'd have the right DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY variables set up. xscreen worked by grabbing the current values from the shell that starts screen since they're usually right. For me, this terminal is either a gnome-terminal running bash on my desktop which always has DISPLAY=:0.0 or a shell started by ssh -Y to my desktop. So it also has all the variables set up properly.

Despite this solution, I'd invariably still launch an X application and will wait and wait only to realize that the window probably popped up on my desktop. Or I'll run a command and I'll get an error saying it cannot connect to the display. Even worse is when I don't start the X app, but some other command (think, for example, git commit launching your favorite editor) does. The first invocation of one of those commands is almost certainly pointed at the wrong display.

Yesterday, I learned about the bash shell variable PROMPT_COMMAND. It gets run before displaying your prompt. This can be used for a variety of purposes including setting the title of your terminal window to your current directory. Well, I just threw in a source ~/.resetx into PROMPT_COMMAND and voila, my DISPLAY environment variable is (almost) always correct. I say almost, because you have to force a redraw of the prompt at least once, but that has not yet been an issue.

One more word of advice. I only wanted this messing with DISPLAY to happen when I'm in screen. After all, ~/.resetx is only correct if I've started screen. Conveniently, screen sets TERM to 'screen', so in my .bashrc it says:

case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
   PROMPT_COMMAND='magic to reset my terminal window header'
   ;;
screen)
   PROMPT_COMMAND="source ~/.resetx"
   ;;
*)
   ;;
esac

Now, I guess all of this is bash specific, but if you're not using bash, you should be ;)

Thoughts on Health Care

In the recent presidential debates, Obama mentioned that, according to the Chamber of Commerce, McCain's plan will lead to the unraveling of the current employer provided health insurance system. While searching for the source of this information, I came across an interesting view point on health insurance published in the Boston Globe. First, for those searching for the origin of Obama's comments, it seems to be this New York Times article which quotes R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber of Commerce. Both articles are interesting, and I'd encourage any one interested in the issue to read both.

However, the Boston Globe one, being an op-ed, provides much more opinion and is therefore more interesting to discuss. The author argues that health insurance ought not be tied to employment. His primary reasons are to improve health insurance portability (something I think is an important issue) and to reduce over consumption of medical services. Its this latter point that I find both intriguing, but ultimately unconvincing.

First a bit of history from the article. The origins of employer based health care according to the article stem back to WWII, when certain laws prevented worker salaries from increasing. The law however did not ban perks, such as medical insurance. It turned out, that not only was this a way to sneak in additional pay, but employees and employers alike did not have to pay taxes on this form of compensation. While initially contentious, this was ultimately codified by Congress.

This creates a bit of a problem in the health care system. If I don't get health insurance from my employer and go purchase it on my own, its paid for with post-tax, not pre-tax dollars. I'm not an expert on the tax code, but even if health insurance is deductible, its not the same as the employer version since it competes with other pieces of the tax code (e.g., the standard deduction) and ultimately may not cause my taxes to be any lower. In my mind, this dichotomy gives unfair advantage to those people fortunate enough to receive insurance from their employer.

McCain's approach to the problem is to tax the employer health provided health insurance and then provide a $2,500 ($5,000 for families) tax credit to allow people to shop for their own insurance. This seems silly to me when a more obvious solution (or at least a less radical one to level the playing field) would be to simply not tax health insurance purchased by individuals.

The other effect, however, of making health insurance tax free is that it encourages health insurance to pay for things not insurance-y. What do I mean by that? Well, many health insurance plans (mine for sure) pays for (or at least subsidizes) preventative care. For example, I can go get an annual checkup, semi-annual teeth cleaning, etc. No doubt the cost of this is transferred to me (or my employer) in the premiums. However, those premiums are paid pre-tax. If only I could convince my insurance company that my rent was a medical expense...

This situation is interesting because these expenses are routine and completely predictable. So it seems silly to involve a middle man in the transaction. Why pay my insurance company to pay my dentist, when I could pay the dentist myself? Normally insurance is used to hedge against uncertainty. Taking automobile insurance as an example, my auto insurance doesn't pay for an oil change (as the Boston Globe op-ed points out), in part because this is routine predictable service. It does however pay for repairing my vehicle if I get into an accident. This is an unexpected event, and the sum total of my premiums up to the accident may not be enough to pay for the repairs. In other words, stashing the premiums in a bank account is not an acceptable replacement for the auto insurance. The insurance company does not operate at a loss (of course, only if it is well managed) because on average the premiums they collect do cover the costs of the repairs they pay for. In summary, while one person may receive a net cash flow from the insurance company (at least for a fleeting instant in time) on average money flows into the insurance company. As customers of the insurance company, we're willing to pay the difference between the premiums we pay and our lifetime accident repair costs for the peace of mind that if we were to require a very expensive repair (a repair that exceeds our premiums thus far and what we could presently afford), the insurance company will pay. This simply does not apply to the regular visit to the dentist for a cleaning (but does for things such as root canals or wisdom tooth extraction, etc.).

The author of the Boston Globe op-ed suggests this is responsible for an over consumption of medical services. In essence, since medical insurance distances the patients from the true cost of medical care, patients get more treatment than they need. I think this is a tenuous argument for several reasons, some pointed (albeit sarcastically) article's comments. Who in a life or death situation is going to question the doctor's advice? However, one does have to wonder if doctor's would be more sensitive to cost when making suggestions if they knew that costs were going to come from the patient and not their insurance company. This may have the effect of reducing unnecessary procedures. Its far easier to take from a faceless insurance company than the patient sitting right in front of you. It may also avoid the insane situation where the list price for medical service is outrageous on the assumption that the insurance company will negotiate it down. This leaves those without insurance in a lurch since they have to pay full price or close to it.

However, the flip side of the story is that the medical insurance companies have a vested interest in their customers receiving preventative care. Returning to the auto example, my insurance company, in addition to not paying for oil changes, doesn't pay for an engine overhaul either. This is a consistent position. If they paid for the latter (because its expensive and often unexpected), but not the former, I as a customer am given an incentive not to protect my engine with regular oil changes. After all, the price of the oil changes come out my pocket, whereas the price of the engine overhaul comes out of the insurance companies pocket. Economists call this moral hazard. A similar moral hazard exists for medical insurance. Its often significantly cheaper to prevent a disease or treat it in its early phases than to deal with it as an emergency. Consequently, if the medical insurance companies are going to pay to deal with the emergencies, they ought to give their customers incentives not to create emergencies. This means paying for preventative care. While no one deliberately wants to get sick or have an emergency, if customers are left to their own devices, when faced with challenges in meeting the family budget, preventative medical care may be cut. That's the last thing the insurance company wants.

What this means to me is that even more things need to be tax deductible. If my routine medical care is being paid by insurance, which is tax deductible, then if I can't afford insurance, or choose not to have it, it's only fair that my routine medical costs are tax deductible. Once again, just being deductible is not enough, it should be deductible before considering things like the standard deduction, etc. If I understand correctly, this is what medical savings accounts are for, but its not at all clear to me why I have to predict at the beginning of the year what my medical expenses are going to be. Why can't I just save the receipts and deduct the costs when filling out my return.

In summary, it seems to me that our current tax code is inconsistent on dealing with medical care and medical insurance. While I'm not sure that the McCain plan is fiscally sound (i.e., does it make health care less affordable for some who are already covered and not go far enough for others who are not, all the while spending more government money with no new sources of government income?), I do think the doing something about the current inequality in the taxation of medical expenses makes sense. On the other hand, I'm also pretty skeptical of Obama's plan (once again, is it fiscally sound?) of having a government run insurance plan. Ultimately, I'm not convinced the government is good at running large programs of any form, nor does it have the incentive to be efficient. Unfortunately, on the corporate side of the world, companies have incentives to be efficient, but they don't have incentives to be sympathetic and caring. That's what makes health care such a tricky issue.

Presidential Debates

This past week, I watched the most recent presidential debate and the one that occurred before that (the one from 10/7). I've realized there are two things that really anger me about the way presidential campaigns and debates work. One, a common gripe, is that the candidates never answer the question. In the past, I've felt like they've cleverly avoided the question. I don't know if its me becoming more cynical or if the candidates have just degenerated, but I feel like the ignore the question altogether and continue talking about what they were talking about during the last question. It's like they're giving a speech that occasionally gets interrupted by the other candidate and the moderator. That's not a debate!

The second thing I hate is when the candidates invoke their own or their opponent's voting record in a legislature (state or federal). Quite frankly, I think its dirty. Every bill is a complex beast. Just because you vote for something doesn't mean you support every aspect of the bill, just that on the net it is good. Similarly, just because you vote against a bill doesn't mean its bad. Once again, you feel on the net its bad. The situation is more tricky for bills that will definitely succeed or fail. In these cases, you may vote for or against just to make a point! The fact of the matter is that both candidates realize this, but selectively choose to ignore it. For example, McCain is big fan of talking about pork and how it gets introduced into legislation at the last second. Couldn't this be a good reason for voting against an otherwise good bill? Sure it can be. So just because someone voted against something doesn't make them evil. Similarly, maybe its worth letting the pork through so that other critical measures get enacted. Does that mean you're pro pork. Obviously not. This case in particular was supposed to be eliminated by the line-item veto. However, that was judged (probably correctly so) to be unconstitutional by putting legislative ability into the hands of the executive (in particular the president).

While I'm talking about the election, one more thing I'd like to mention. Why when talking about the economy do we vilify Wall Street and mourn Main Street? There is no doubt in my mind that excess, greed, and poor judgment on Wall Street are largely to blame for the current economic mess. However, on every bad loan that was given, there were (at least) two parties involved. Those giving the loans and those taking it. If an individual or family accepted an obligation they knew they couldn't meet, they're part of the problem! And, the last I checked, we, as a nation, do not accept ignorance as an excuse. If someone making a large investment (as buying a house is) does not do their due diligence to understand not only how much their mortgage will cost next month, but how much it'll cost 60 months from now, well shame on them. If they understood it, and took a risk (for example on home values or interest rates) and those things did not work out in their favor, we shouldn't feel sorry for them. They rolled the dice and lost. That's what risk is about. We don't feel sorry for the person who loses money on the blackjack table, so why should we feel bad for those that lost it in real estate gambling (unless of course, they can convince us that they're addicted to the real estate market and need help).

I do feel bad for any home owner that is in trouble now because an unscrupulous loan agent lied to them in the past. These lies can come in many forms, whether explicit or lies of omission. However, there is certainly a fine line here. If the consumer doesn't ask the right questions, they're never going to hear the right answers. You can't walk into a bank trying to get a mortgage and worry only about your monthly costs in the short term. There is some responsibility on you to ask the tough questions about the future.

One last point on this subject. Where is the mourning for the person who acted responsibly. You'll find this person in fairly sound financial shape, renting an apartment, wishing he or she could buy a home. Unfortunately, because these people could do math, understood how the interest rates and the various loans worked, and were fiscally responsible, they rejected mortgages they couldn't afford and decided not to buy a home, or settle for something smaller than they really wanted. At the same time, the irresponsible people (both lenders and borrowers) kept making more money available so that home prices were driven up, making it even harder for the responsible folks to buy a home. And now that the market has begun to correct itself, we hear the politicians talking about stabilizing home prices. And how are we going to do that? Well, we'll tax the responsible people a little bit more and force banks and other organizations to renegotiate mortgages to more reasonable values. All this does is let people who shouldn't have been able to buy a home in the first place keep their homes, while responsible people still can't afford a home because the prices are, once again, artificially high. Why not, in these re negotiations, give first dibs to people who acted prudently through the growth of the real estate bubble. Reward them for acting responsibly, instead of using them to support the excess not only of Wall Street, but of Main Street too.

Ate Like a Glutton

I really want to bike home from work now, but I just ate like a glutton. The cafe I went to had clams casino, a mushroom tart, almond crusted chicken fingers with an exotic dipping sauce, and some well prepared vegetables. Before I knew it, my plate was overflowing with food. I promptly ate it all, and suddenly realized if I try and bike now, I'll get a cramp which will somehow lead to me getting hit by a car. So now, I'm stuck at work for probably another half hour while I digest. This free food at work thing is a real mixed blessing :)

My Niece Learned How To Walk!

And she's only 10 1/2 months old! When I was eating dinner today, I got two phone calls spread out by about 5 minutes. I make it a point not to pick up my phone when I'm with real live other people, so I missed both calls. When I got back to my office, I checked my phone and one call was from my brother and the other from my Mom. I checked my voice mail and my brother told me that niece had a surprise for me and that I should Skype him as soon as possible (isn't it sad that I got a phone call telling me to Skype someone else. Why can't we do video chat on phones yet. Phones have wifi/3g networks etc. Although, I personally am still in the stone ages because T-Mobile refuses to release the Blackberry Bold in the US, but that's another rant). Anyway, the message from my Mom said she had good news. I knew something was up, so I skyped my brother immediately.

I was really hoping my niece learned how to say my name because she recently learned Momma, Daddy (which sometimes gets pronounced daggy), doggy, and I think I heard her say Nana too. But when I Skyped my brother, I got to watch my niece run back and forth between her dad and mom. It was really cute. Although, I'm not really surprised that she learned how to walk. She knew how to do it the last time I was there to visit (about a month and half ago), but she insisted on holding someone's hand. In fact, she'd decide she wanted to walk, so she'd find someone's hand to help her out. And it was just for moral support, she didn't really support any of her weight with the hand. But anyway, good for her! Now, once she learns my name, I think she's all set until kindergarten :)

Brand New TV

I was so excited that my brand new 50" plasma TV (a Panasonic TH-50PZ800U for the interested) was going to be delivered today. Things started going poorly when I left work to wait for the delivery. Someone was supposed to show up between 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm. However, at 1:30, still nobody at my door. So I called the delivery company because I had to get back to work promptly at 2 for a meeting. They assured me the delivery guys would be here. Not 1 minute after I hung up, I got a phone call directly from the delivery truck drivers saying they were running late and would be at my apartment by 3:00 pm. Ugh...

I went back to work and went to my 2:00 meeting. In the middle of the meeting my phone starts ringing (luckily I had remembered to put it in vibrate, so I didn't end up disturbing the whole meeting). Looking at the caller ID, I can tell its the delivery guys. What part of, "I won't be able to take delivery until after 3:00" did they not understand. It turns out, I was just being paranoid. They were calling to let me know they were on their way, but they understand that I can't be home until 3, so they'll wait for me. I gotta say, I don't think that would ever happen on the east coast. Delivery people seem to be more patient and reasonable out here (I had a similar experience with my mattress delivery).

So, I get back to my apartment just as the delivery people are showing up. They bring the box out of their truck and there's a giant hole right in the middle of the box. I'm thinking, "This can't be good." They bring the TV into my apartment and open it up a bit so we can check for damage. Everything looked fine and I was psyched to get the thing set up. After I signed for the delivery, they delivery guys left, and I began to further unpack things. When I got the whole TV out of the box, I noticed a gash in the lower left part of the screen. Nooooooo!!!!

So, now I have to get a new one from Panasonic. I must say that I'm disappointed that I don't have everything set up today. But, Panasonic did have really good customer service. Other than getting disconnected once for mysterious reasons, the people on the other end didn't ask any questions. They just set things up to have a new TV shipped out to me and said the delivery people would take the old one away. That's how all customer service should be. Kudos to Panasonic.

Now, my only problem is trying to figure out how to get the TV and all the other random parts that fell out of the box back into the box for when the delivery guys come to haul it away. Sigh...

Hopefully in a few days, I'll have good news to report. A new TV (without a gash in the screen) will arrive and Comcast will install CableCARD into my HD TiVo and all will be wonderful in TV Land.

All the Good Names are Taken

So, I just recently moved out to the west coast from the east coast. A friend encouraged me to start a blog so that friends and family could easily check up on what I was up to. Shortly afterward, my brother encouraged me to get an account on twitter which has been referred to as micro-blogging. So I decided to do both. I encourage all of you out there to also get on to twitter as well, so I can follow the small little events in your life. I really want to dive head first into it to see if I like it, and quite frankly just keeping track of one person isn't going to keep me going back.

So, the real reason for this post is to try and rationalize the name of the blog. When I created an account, the first question the site asked me was to enter a name. I hadn't given it much thought and instantly thought about including the words "rant" or "musings" or something like that in the title. But every single thing I could think of using those or similar words was taken! I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise, but it's still annoying.

So I decided to head to the thesaurus to find a word I don't know (given my vocabulary has about 12 words in it, I figured this wouldn't be too difficult). After a bit of searching, I found "excogitation". Here's the definition from Webster's dictionary:

• to think out
• devise

I figured that sounded like what I do on the blog, so that part was set. The "alley" part then seemed to flow naturally. In retrospect, I think I was subtly influenced by the name of a friend's blog which also sounds like a place you might visit in the real world (rather than on the Internet). So, that's it. That's how I arrived at the name.