perquisitum.com

Greg Surbey for New Hampshire State Representative

I am running for New Hampshire State Representative in Nashua: www.gregsurbey.com

Vote Ron Paul

Vote Ron Paul for President of the United States. That is all.

The Economics of Hyping Hybrids

Have you ever wondered if a Hybrid vehicle was worth it? For all the environmentalists out there the answer is of course a resounding yes. However everyone else seems to be a bit more down to earth pragmatic when it comes to saving money. To those regular folk it thus becomes more of a question of if the total long term benefits out weigh the total upfront cost. Alright, I wondered about the real benefits of owning a hybrid myself and couldn't come up with any satisfying answers on a web search so I complied my own data off of my own Honda Civic 2005 Hybrid. Take a look and see how the reality is that Hybrids do make an excellent case if you're in a tax bracket that could use a couple thousand dollar write off :-)

Let's start with the Kelly Blue Book Value comparison of what is at it's base and with similarly configured features very much the same car. Note that the prices on the Kelly site vary over time and mine below reflect the prices when this article was published. In reality I payed several thousand dollars less than list price for my car, but we're looking for a common ratio here.
A Honda Civic Regular Manual 2005 at 32/38MPG is $15,261.00
A Honda Civic Hybrid Manual 2005 at 46/51MPG is $20,041.00
The premium you pay for Hybrid technology is the difference in price: $4,780

Assume the Regular fills up for gas once a week
13.2 gal tank * $2.35 per gal * 52.177457 weeks in a year = $1,618.54 for gas per year
A Hybrid week fill up is every (46+51)/(32+38) = 1.385714286 weeks
13.2 gal tank * $2.35 per gal * 52.177457/1.385714286 fuel efficient week = $1,168.02 for gas per year
That's $1,618.54-$1,168.02 = $450.52 savings in gas a year for the Hybrid

Assume a car lifetime/battery lifetime of 8 years (because that is how long the battery is warranted by the manufacturer before you have to spend =< $2,000 to replace it). That's 8 * $450.52 = $3,604.16 in total gas savings. Alright at first glance that means you paid $4,780-$3,604.16 = $1175.84 more for your Hybrid car than your Regular car. Ah but that's what you would think at first, however not exactly! Also you have to factor in the time value of money because a hybrid is an investment that only pays off itself slowly over time. So let's do that.

Let's say that $4,780 (difference in car price) is the the initial borrowed principal for a time value of money "account" that must be payed off. According to my constants above you pay 13.2*2.35= $31.02 for Regular gas per a week and 31.02/1.385714286= $22.39 for Hybrid gas a week. That is (31.02-22.39)*1.385714286= $11.96 placed into your pocket every Hybrid week paying into that time value of money "account" that currently has a deficit. Assuming a 3% average yearly inflation rate we're going to see what the left over deficit of the "account" is after 8 years and 37.653834941*8= 301.230679528 payments of $11.96 have been made using a loan balance equation.

A= beginning deficit, i= interest, n= # of payments made, P = payment amount
3% inflation interest a year is 0.0796732% per a Hybrid week, so i = 0.000796732

Balance = A(1+i)^n - (P/i)[(1+i)^n 1]
Balance = 4780*1.000796732^301.230679528 - (11.96/0.000796732)*(1.000796732^301.230679528-1)
Balance = 4780*1.271127834 - 15011.321247295*0.271127834
Balance = 2006.004031263

Using this more accurate time value of money adjusted equation shows that after 8 years you really paid $2,006.00 more total for your Hybrid car than the Regular car. Ah, but what if we mess with the constants in a realistic way? For instance gas prices have been a bit higher than average adjusted for the consumer price index and also inflation is just now rising above the average (think the tail end of the 70's except not quite as bad). Let's set 4% inflation and $2.75 per a gallon of gas at the pump. That's now (36.3-26.20)*1.385714286 = $14.00 gas savings every Hybrid week.

Balance = 4780*1.001062309^301.230679528 - (14.00/0.001062309)*(1.001062309^301.230679528-1)
Balance = 1614.53

First it was $2,006.00 and now it's $1,614.53 for a difference of $391.47. Future gas prices do seem to have somewhat of an impact. Since I bought a new Hybrid car this year I'm eligible this year only for a one-time Federal tax deduction of $2,000. The law changes after this year so if I would have bought my hybrid car in 2006-2009 I'd get a $1,700 one-time Federal tax credit. See how close my above calculations are to those two tax break numbers, interesting no? The after 2005 credit is variable depending upon the fuel efficiency of the specific Hybrid vehicle. It's nice to note as long as incentive laws remain on the books I'm allowed to ride in the Virginia HOV lanes without any passengers. Not to mention the Hybrid Civic's engine is whisper quiet. In my example the car traveled a total of 176,318 miles in 8 years. If perhaps you believe that the Hybrid car and battery can last 10 years then it would travel 220,398 miles and using our first equation again this time would only cost $1202.13 more than the Regular car. Sooo now how about taking account of the tax credit... once more, with feeling:

Balance = 4780*1.000796732^37.653834941 - (11.96/0.000796732)*(1.000796732^37.653834941-1)
This leaves you with $4,468.54 of deficit left to pay after one year and then subtract $2,000 worth of tax credit and you only have $2,468.54 of deficit left to pay.
Number of payments left = -log(1−iA/P) / log(1+i)
Number of payments left = -log(1−0.000796732*2468.54/11.96) / log(1+0.000796732)
225.584875057 payments / 37.653834941 Hybrid weeks = about 6 more years for zero balance to equal a grand total of 7 years until parity. The last couple of months the hybrid makes you... *drum roll*
Your profit = (P*[(1+i)^n-1]) / i
Your profit = 11.96*(1.000796732^37.99196953-1) / 0.000796732

A gain of $461.14!!! Amazing!!! Now go buy one ;-)

Of Terrible Turkeys and Vindictive Venison

I carpooled with my dad and my two brothers to Blacksburg this last weekend to see the highly touted Tech vs. Miami college football match-up. Oh, and also to have my bro who's currently in senior high school see if he liked the campus. There were tons of tailgate parties littered all throughout the Tech parking lots and many people were waaay drunk waaay before the afternoon game. Man, that stadium is huge and it happened to be fully packed and lit up that night. The people surrounding us were crazy enthused about the game and the after-market tickets were selling for up to $600 a piece. Yeah, but unfortunately it looked as if star quarterback Marcus Vick cracked under pressure and so consequently he played an awful game. Well, even though the score was hardly close, and Miami won by a large margin, it was an awesome experience just seeing the massive amount of die hard Tech fans. Especially funny was the drunk fellow behind us who kept yelling out "Miami sucks!! But their cheerleaders are hot!!" and other such favorites along those lines :-P I loved it, fireworks, drums, cannon fire, and the roar of the crowd. I can now understand those Hokies, how could you not get into that?

So anyway, about two weeks ago I get done doing my good deed in helping out my bud Scott with his CS project at GMU for which I know surely the karma gods will take good care of me for later. At this point I'm feel'n nice and tired at 11:00pm plus work tomorrow don't ja know. I drive that undeniably treacherous underbelly of Fox Mill road that is so ominously haunted at night by the likes of evil razor-teethed carnivorous deer. Suddenly out of nowhere I see one of these Frankenbambis dart over a steep downward embankment right toward where my car would be in a split second. I quickly engage the breaks and honk my horn as a deterrent so that I may not harm the impossibly stupid animal and also in hopes that this fiend would perhaps give my car the same courtesy in return. No such courtesy was applied at all! Right where I stopped seems to have left my front passenger fender unguarded to the deranged deer who thought it to be an excellent pillow for it's head when it decided to redirect it's forward momentum into the side of my car. After knocking what little brains this adolescent female had out, she now lay beside me twitching. Sadly this particular situation wasn't quite as pleasant as it sounds. So at first I considered running over the deer several times in a back and forth manner; purely for charity of course, just to be sure and take it out of it's misery. However after seeing only specific car body damage inflicted I decided it best to get my car out of the road lest another vehicle come around the corner to add insult to injury and rear end me. Looking back as I slowly began my way home, and to my utter disappointment... er... delight the devious deer tipsily got up at this point and stumbled off into the night. So I now sit here car-less waiting for the repair shop to finish hopefully soon after the weekend. Insurance was cool though, no rate increase since this was considered an act of God. Still, I don't really worry about the balance of karma; firearms are allowed for deer hunting season in 10 days. And since I voted for a republican yesterday I know two things: I can carry a gun and God is on my side *wink* *wink* (do you really take me seriously?)

Busy enough for a Summer cool down

Yeah, I have been extremely active/busy since last I posted and so I've decided that it is easiest for me to post a short list of things that have happened these passed few months. Although I'm sure there is yet more to add to the list that I can't immediately recall...

1. Bought a 802.11g wireless prism54 chipset along with a 1 watt amplifier in order steal all my neighbors' wireless bandwidth with, muhahaha. It has native Linux drivers and one of the few cards that can be used to hack WEP encryption. My build-it-yourself kit was composed of a Xterasys XG-600 miniPCI Wireless LAN Card (for NoteBook PC) from Coolerexpress.com at $57.26, a PCI to miniPCI adapter from ITuner Networks Corp. at $25.91, and a 1 Watt 802.11g Amplifier from Hyperlink Technologies at $200.80
2. Implemented a _ton_ of Linux services. I can now honestly say I am a true Linux expert. My most favorite mammoth accomplishment so far is the Microsoft Active Directory mimicry I compiled by utilizing Linux implementations of DCHP/DNS/LDAP/SASL/Kerberos and Samba. The synchronized implementations are so technically cool it would take too long to describe why in layman terms. Not only that but it will save my company so much money and doesn't ever need a reboot.
3. Figured out that Verizon's voice minutes and data minutes are billed the same. I bought a USB cable for my cell phone... a pleasant surprise, feels like about half cable modem speeds and is free after 9:00pm. My phone even has Linux drivers.
4. Made some sweet money in my Roth IRA with Natural Gas since I first started on April 14th, click the chart on this baby. Oh and the 401K is doing nicely too. Of course now that I say that... *crosses fingers*
5. Went to HFStival. Hell yes, it was awesome. I saw Garbage and the Foo Fighters live to name a few. It's sweetness how the best bands are actually even better live. The entirety of the day literally rocked. This event is a teen-twentysomething's paradise. Pretty girls were everywhere... the ones I didn't notice since I was with Ashley ;-) Since we had to stay on stadium grounds the food throughout the day alone cost more than admission. But who cares, the whole place was one ginormous party. Yeah sure beer, weed, and all that you'd expect (who cares) but the fun vibe was all-encompassing. Ashley and I went crowd surfing into the mosh pit, kick ass :-)
6. Bought a new 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, light blue, with a manual transmission. I custom installed myself a new CD-player/receiver unit with an AUX input for my MP3 player. BTW, Crutchfield is great for that kind of thing.
7. Went with Ashley as my date to her high school prom. Tux, limo, the whole shebang. I had a spectacular time all because I was with her. She was amazingly beautiful that night. Also, this was the first and only prom I've been to.

Ashley left me last Wednesday to go off to college in Florida since she's starting on a summer semester... if I had mentioned that in an itemized list it would have severely downplayed how much this deeply affects me. There is simply no way to describe the ten months of heaven on earth I have experienced with her. I'm am so incredibly happy for her graduating high school and going on to attend her first choice university. I miss her very much and I have felt awkward and empty these passed few days...

Anyway, here are some links that are guaranteed to give you a laugh:

Random Star Wars Lego Symphony
What happens when you turn to the dark side :-P
Click this, you will

Blogger Beware

In light of the past political issues that I have experienced with bloging on my website I now feel the urge to write a short diatribe against companies that fire bloggers for posting a picture of themselves in uniform. The applied term for getting fired because of personal blogging is called getting dooced. It's probably a good idea to read up on some frequently asked questions if you are a blogger. Blogging is so very much mainstream now that even Business Week has a front page article on how businesses should not ignore it but rather embrace it. Now I wouldn't advocate busting the company that you have just been hired to like Mark Jen did. However, I do think that as long as a blogger doesn't write about his or her company negatively, disclose internal information, or write about their company at all then a blogger's website should be thought of in the same light as any other aspect of that person's personal life.

Blogs are meant to be open. They are meant to be a place where one can allow themselves to practice their first amendment right. Ideally to express anything they so desire with only one's self censorship imposed. Only one person's own politics should be the ones that are displayed on their blog. A website promoting the textual embodiment solely of one author should indeed be motivated solely by one author. Actually I believe that would be the whole point of an individual owning their own blog. Once that individuality is taken away does it not simply turn the website into yet another oligarchical, committee, compromising news outlet? When one finds their blog threatened by the politics of third parties, such as their workplace, the whole point of owning a blog is defeated. At that point it is not your blog. I for one will keep my blog my own property. I for one will fight to keep my property no matter which entity wishes to censor my intellectual outpouring. My blog will remain pure unadulterated me... even when it means unrated adulterated :-P

'One' Load of Crap

So the other day I happen to see this One drivel advertised on the tele in black and white displaying all these well known Hollywood types and their big fat faces. So what did they all come together in support of? Quite a noble effort really... taking my money from my paycheck. But not just my paycheck, yours too. Oh and one more thing, they want you to be happy about it and tell your friends, coworkers, and next door neighbors its a good thing. Who do they want the money to go to? Charitable organizations like these. Well for now I'll assume that these organizations are reputable so at first this proposal doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. I mean someday I might like to give some of my money to aid those in need around the world. But not now, only when I'm old and have amassed enough money to not be poor myself.

So this proposal effectively forces me to pay for aid today when I need to invest that money today so I can more effectively give tomorrow at a time when it won't seriously negatively affect my checkbook. Only an oxymoron could come up with the idea of forced charity. Not to mention we're talking about the government deciding where this proposed aid goes... and that's always worked in the past right? Umm no, try wrong. Oh, and it should come as no surprise that the UN isn't a solution either. How much money does the One campaign call for? Just 1% that's all. You know, of the little 'ol US Budget. Hummm sounds so simple... but I wonder why they don't give an estimate of what that really means on their website? Well here I can help with that; the proposed US Budget for 2006 is 2.57 trillion dollars. FYI trillion means 12 zeros, that's $2,570,000,000,000 folks. Guess what 1% of 2.57 trillion is? Let's see just take off two zeros... $25.7 billion in US dollars.

Billions of dollars all gleaned from US tax payers so that it can go to support foriegn political graft and to prop up foriegn dictatorships guised in smoke under the euphemism "humanitarian". You know what... I think I'll pass and stick to deciding where my money goes myself... because guess what, I will do a better job of it. Don't worry ladies it's not the same as saying no to Brad Pit at the wedding alter. Remember his job title is an actor which means he's paid to do actions, kind of like a human puppet (actually I'm just jealous). Quite a noble effort to steal my money and finagle the general public all at the same time. Catching these kinds of fallacies before they get out of hand is really easy: Just say no to big useless, bungling, blundering government. Oh, and by all means give to charity, just don't give to the government. Trust me, as much money as they waste now they don't need control over more.

'Who the fsck cares?' or 'Disclaimer'

Ok, in light of the forced domain move I believe I should make clear to _some_ readers a few pointers about this website and how it should be "parsed", if you will. Firstly, understand that some of my posts are thoughtful and intelligent while others are inside jokes and parodies. I wouldn't ask the average person on the net to read and understand either one. Thus in such cases that average person cannot and should not attempt any intelligible inferences from such posts. Second, contrary to crazy kook misconceptions I do not publish all my feelings on personal matters in totality to my website. Trust me, there is plenty that goes on around me that I am aware of and that I don't necessarily feel a need to make privy to the whole of the net.

Furthermore, at any given point in time I carry within my mind matters that I deem self-righteously important and that I would love to vent about (and have more than good reason to do so). Still, so does everyone else on this green earth. Anyone with half a brain knows that those who talk about all of their sensitive personal issues are stupidly opening themselves up to social vulnerabilities. Even discounting that if I were to be utterly and totally candid on this web site, not only would it give others the power of information over me but also the very point of any such discussions would be missed by 99% of the population. And that would skim another 0.000042% off my current readership :-P

A note about website forums: The forums are lightly moderated because otherwise they would not be open and fun for users. Also, it is good to note that misquoting other users in the forums is easily accomplished and would be equivalent to a liable in print media. If you are not familiar with the how and why of unmoderated website forums then don't even think of clicking the forums link because you just wouldn't understand.

In conclusion, all I have so far published and will continue to publish on this website is all that I would be more than willing to tell the average Joe Blow whom I just met at the local watering hole. And since I'm a geek and I don't go to bars (that would require going outside) I have this website instead. Well what can I say, I am naturally a very open introvert.

Yeah, and now thanks to the lack of Surbey.com webpages querying for "Surbey" on Google is akin to searching for Einstein and having the first result yield a link to tele-tubbies. *rolles eyes* Surely this is progress.

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Domain Name Changes... Life Changes

After being down for more than four months the content of Surbey.com has now moved to perquisitum.com. A quick google search will yield that perquisitum is Latin for "that which has been acquired by careful search; perquirere, to search diligently". Which makes since because the gravitational collapse of a entire galaxy takes less time than searching for a domain name that's not already in use by some dumbass squatter. Perquisitum is also the root of the English word perquisite with the meaning "to gain as expected or promised" and to "claim as an exclusive right".

I equate this meaning with the freedom that America promises citizens above the age of eighteen. The wonderful freedom that I have had the pleasure of for two weeks so far. Finally, I moved to Reston and I have a place of my own. Finally, I decide who I associate with and control my surroundings and quality of life. This is the freedom that breeds happiness, motivation, and satisfaction in life. This freedom is extended by the freedom of speech that this website displays. This is freedom; the thing I have long searched for and that I have finally acquired.

...that and the fact that I thought the name praeditus.com was a little too, well... boastful :-P

New Years Party!

Well Dan's New Years party was awesome. Just one thing on my part though, I think I would have gotten to play more games if I stopped going up to the bar :-) I played 3 games of old school StarCraft the whole night and it was sweet. We were having such a good time that we even played through New Years and after that game ended we were like... "uhhh it's 12:15... happy new year!!" LOL. Had a total of eight people for a while, wow it was great fun and brought back memories.

Old News:
Dan Kang is hosting the ultimate small New Years party and LAN party on Friday the 31st at 10:00pm (7:00pm if you BYOC). You don't need to participate in the LAN in order to come but to have loads of fun you should BYOC. Anyone who knows and is pretty good friends with Dan or is in our little "in" crowd would probably be invited if you contact him or me. This party is mostly going to be composed of high school buddies who graduated from JMHS coming together to have some kick ass fun again just like old times :-) Anyway it's hosted in his basement and there will be pizza and booze and there is a required cover charge of $15 at the door (food and booze costs). So far David Bunning, David Schmitz, Joon-hyung Park are coming...