It's not necessarily evil, and probably not a conspiracy. But it could be, and there's no way to tell.

Speculation

The fictional Oil company, AZoco, has just posted record profits, and you are paying more for gas. Simple logic is suggestive that AZoco is making money because of your suffering. If you did the same thing, you'd be price gouging.

It's not price gouging, if it's traded on the free markets, and the price is in-line with what the market says.

If AZoco were only in the gas business, and was suddenly pulling record profits on the rise of Oil prices, then clearly they are playing with the margins, and doing something sneaky (the price of gas would have to cost unexpectedly more than the sum price of oil + refinement + delivery).

The Stations

For instance, 7-11, Holiday and Stuckey's are in the Gas business... they use Gas to attract customer's to their retail businesses.

Imagine that I manage a gas station. I've been struggling lately because my customers don't buy as many pops, and - frankly - the margin I pull off gas sales is only a few pennies per gallon (usually between 3 and 4 pennies). My buddy who owns a franchise pays more for his gas delivery service, thus pulling only a penny and a half per gallon to compete with me. He's probably going to close his doors and beg for a manager job at the Speedway soon.

The Oil companies are not profiting on Gas, they are profiting on Oil.
...and Gas comes from Oil, but that is less important.

Oil, a commodity

Like any thriving gas company, AZoco has full or part ownership in a wide array of Oil production facilities (production varies from wells and drilling to strip mining). Oil is a complex and volitile business, and Oil is a frequently traded commodity.

Since, AZoco produces oil, it shouldn't surprise anybody that AZoco is making money off of high oil prices. Afterall AZoco still sold oil at market price through the relatively low oil prices of the 80's and 90's. ...You weren't complaining then...

Refinement and delivery

Gas price is tied to the price of Oil, but as I mentioned before, it's also tied to refinement and delivery.

Refinement is also a low margin business, and as such, there is only room for enough refinery businesses to match current need. Because of this, the gas refinery facilities lost during hurricane Katrina also have an impact on both the price and availability of gas. However, the price of Gas has not been greatly impacted by the availability. There have simply been some stations that have not been able to get enough gas. In those localized areas gas has been more expensive.

Delivery, well - it takes gas and oil to deliver gas and oil, and the price of delivery has gone up. This involves a fraction of a penny per gallon, but ultimately, this makes a difference as to whether a station has to charge a penny more on any given week.

Death

Sorry, I mean taxes. Taxes are a constant (as in constantly rising), but it takes an act of your state's legislature, and/or congress to raise the gas taxes. Federal gas taxes per gallon are at 18.5 cents per gallon. State gas taxes vary widely, but 35 cents per Gallon is typical. For some reason, Gas taxes are not in percentages, and as a result, the government does not see more money with higher prices (as opposed to retail inflation).

Refinement and new EPA rules

Yet another thing that has affected the price of gasoline is the additives that the EPA has forced into all gasoline. late last year (in northern climates, the gas is only mandated during daylight savings, because the new mix won't work well in low temperatures). As usual, California is one step ahead of the EPA on these things, making their prices even higher. For this portion of the price (which is near 10 cents per gallon in some states) the government feels it is responsible. and this little portion is why some folks in the government are thinking that they can help ellivate the problem on the other end through rebates or tax cuts.

Conclusion

The issue is far more complex than we are comfortable admitting to. I hope to have brought a common-sense view of gasoline prices and I hope you've found this useful. If you have anything further to add, please do.

When I say YOU, especially in a MEME-like setting, it means the average, not necessarily, "you", the writer of the Meme. Either way, it's all part of why I suck.

Techno-Geek Rant. Sorry...

It was a whole bunch of stuff about AT&T working with synthesized voice, and they are clearly talking themselves up. No surprise. But what bothered me is they were showing all of these popular-entertainment computer voices (from War Games, etc.) No big deal, but then they start playing digitized voice (recorded voice played by computers... as if it's the same), K.I.T.T. (William Daniels) and finally a modern GPS/Talking mapper.

Jumping subjects, and assuming people are stupid. Why is it that Chatty Kathy dolls had much better voices than anything AT&T could do back in 1965? Because they used RECORDINGS.

Voice digitizing is easy. Voice synthesis is very hard.

GMail Oddity

There are occasionally SPAM messages in GMail that I can't delete without opening them first. My immediate thought is conspiracy, but I'm hoping it's just a bug, or some sort of weakness that is being exploited until the GMail folks find it and fix it.
-- Any of you seen this, or am I alone with this issue?

My Previous Journals

They are sequential (in that they were submitted close enough together, that the journalid is only off by one). Also, and this was not on purpose, they are two years to the day from when I created this account (Allen Zadr), and the second of those Journal Entries has almost the same subject line (A Fresh Start vs. A Fresh Slate).

Work

I'm starting to actually do important work. Stuff that actually matters. I've created several patches (one of them to a core module), and I'm expecting acceptance next week. I've got a queue of work to complete.
----
Also, I have to run Cygwin there. We are not allowed to run "Linux" on our desktops, but we need to do all of our work on UNIX boxes... thus, the need for X... thus Cygwin. I've never used it so extensively before. My goodness it's got a lot of stability issues (of course, could be because I've installed a whole bunch of gnome tool ports, gah.) Anyway, strange way to work... on a pretend-X over an XP desktop.
-- Any experiences/tips with Cygwin XWin that anyone would care to share? Things to avoid?

This is the second of two journal entries about my transition from one job to another. The first one is here.

Well, I've completed my first week of the new job. I'm now, again, a Software Engineer, and no longer a Director of Information Technology.

I'm now reporting to a really huge company. My employee number is in the hundreds of thousands. Seven out of ten people who I talk to, know at least one of their business units. I'm working in a department of nearly 50 developers in a sub-department of nearly twelve collegues. I have no clue as to what folks on the other side of the world are doing.

The new job is 32 miles from my far-suburban home, to my center-of-St. Paul work and it takes me about 50 minutes to get to the lot. Parking costs $150 per month and it takes 10 minutes to park, take the elevator in the parking ramp, walk the skyway to my building, and another elevator ride to my floor.

I'm a bit of a fish out of water.

I haven't been a Software Engineer for nine years. I haven't been in a huge company for a long time (and even then, it was short lived - only 6 months - contract).

I've already gotten one thing done (it's only my first week, I'm actually proud of myself).

This is the first of two journal entries about my transition from one job to another. The second one is here.

Last Friday, I left my employer of 6.7 years. I was the Director of Information Technology within the North American group.

The company was small, but international (less than 200 employees world-wide). A few years ago, they had almost 300. Nobody has heard of this company. There was only one I.T. person for each of three regions, and my only collegues there, were each on another continent.

The company was 18 miles from my far-suburban home, to my near-suburban work and it took me about 45 minutes to get to the lot. There's an ample free-parking lot, and it took about 3 minutes from entering the lot to my desk.

I was the big fish, the guru on the hill.

In any case, yet another boss-man came in, with yet another big plan for saving big money. Sales people were hired, and fired (as usual). Certain things were cut back and other things were boosted. However, this boss decided that I.T. cost too much money, and proceeded to start bringing in I.T. outsourcing companies to bid on my job.

So, after an unqualified bid that he liked (where unqualified means that they were not actually able to deal with all of our systems, only a few). I was offerred a 17% pay-cut.

Some of the other managers encouraged me to look out for number one (as if I needed convincing). The search was on. It took me four months to find a position, and I left the place behind with no plans to look back.

As I said, that was last Friday.

Next: here.

Today, I start my last week of work for my current employer. My last week with the cool "Director, Information Technology" title. My last week as the guru on the hill.

I'll miss that.

Yes, the Ides of March, which was pretty unlucky for Julius Ceasar (though, clearly, fairly good for Rome).

I got a written job offer today. What to do?

I am thinking of telling my job on Friday (after lunch) that my last day will be next Friday (24th). Should I give them less notice than a week? What would Ellem do?

See, I'm the Director of Information Technology, and the "prudent" thing would be to send me home the moment they have my notice. However, the "smart" thing to do would be to get as much information out of me as possible, and agree to an off-hours consulting arrangement, if they need further assistance.

I don't want to be a total jerk, but I'm not willing to give MORE than a 1 week notice, because they've sent managers packing on the day of notice in the past.

Either way, I will be taking a consulting-to-hire as a Perl programmer for a rather huge company. I haven't done full-time professional development for near 9 years. And, well, I've been at my current job for near 7 years, and it's like a divorce (my first marriage lasted five years). That's to say, I'm stressed and nervous, and sad and happy.

Sunday, can't go anywhere. Can't do anything. Waiting for Gas Company repair guy, expected before 8PM. Water Heater is going flaky. Technical Details for reader's skipping convenience are below.

Job thing is getting even scarier. The CFO at my company (relatively small company) whom I've worked with for near seven years had a 40 minute conversation with me. He's never before talked to me for more than 5 minutes. He's concerned that I have an exit strategy, because the CEO doesn't think IT is an expense that we need to consider (meaning, my salary). CFO discussed options of talking to the CEO about the importance of IT at a Technology Company (we write and sell freaking SOFTWARE). He also discussed his (and other managements difficulty in defending me because none of them really know what I do for a living. He prefaced this with his knowledge that I must be doing a pretty good job, because he never has to think about what I do, which means, stuff rarely breaks.

So... I spent the next 25 minutes or so, discussing the history of my position, and how I came to be responsible for all of the things I'm responsible for. Why I do what projects for other regions, and I detailed some of the problems that the other regions have had when they've had newbie MCSE types trying to run things.

In the end, I think he was more afraid of losing me, and I felt a little more like there was nothing he would be able to do to stop it.

Yet, I have /yet another/ verbal job offer, and I'm really hoping I'll have it finalized and in writing by the time week's end rolls around. I'm quite scared, partly because my last major project rollout is probably going to happen during this week (Exchange Server and ArcServe Backup), assuming I can fix the few issues that are still remaining on the ArcServe side.

Water Heater Technical

My water heater, like many of the newer gas models has an electronic ignition. When the water starts to get cool, an exhaust fan turns on, and a pilot starts shooting gas. The ignition starts sparking, and a temperature sensor makes sure that the pilot is actually lit. If the temperature sensor doesn't detect the flame, the gas shuts off for 30 seconds (remember there's an active exhaust fan running), and then it tries twice more. If it fails three times, the temperature control unit starts steadily blinking off and on (usually it stays on, but blinks brighter every 10 seconds or so).

At that point, I can turn off power to the unit (through the exhaust fan control), and turn it back on (in which case, it tries three more times). It is still lighting after the sixth try, but the pilot sensor is dying (thankfully a slow enough death that I could still have a hot shower). So, I wait for the Gas Company tech to come replace the faulty sensor.

I don't think dear Ma has a solid sense of what Wikipedia is about. She is oddly a fan of a company that has made the 10th page of the newspapers several times over the last year, and Wikipedia has an article on this company. The best I can tell, dear Ma found out about this company after they spammed her, and she thought the spam was 'funny'.

Part of this company's thing is to create buzz by inviting folks to make up bogus stories about said company. So, obediently, dear ma dropped a load of hooey into Wikipedia, because some stupid spam told her to spread rumors.

She Emailed me a link to the resulting article, she's so proud...
I thought I had raised her better than that.

Some of you may know, I got an Ipod 3 weeks ago. I have already discovered the joy of subscribing to podcasts.

I quickly discovered the XML behind the podcast experience, and sent FidelCatsro an XML podcast file for EP3 and EP4, which Fidel posted (but doesn't have a link on his homepage for)...

Which brings me to the question... if you have iTunes, AND you have not subscribed to Fidel-Cast... if you search for Fidel-Cast in the iTunes Music Store interface, does it show up?

If so, did the act of individuals subscribing to the cast within the iTunes interface add the Fidel-cast to the iTunes database, or did someone explicitly add it (there's a link within iTunes music store to do so, but I have not done it)?

SamTheButcher... if you are reading this... if I were to spend a couple of 0.99s on, say Keane songs, what would be the top two recommended songs? I heard a chunk of "This is the Last Time", off their web site, and don't want to randomly pick the "worst" song among those available to buy. Not that two bucks is a big investment, but ... well ... I'm just silly that way.

Alright,
You continue to write,
Daily,
Love entwined tight.

JohnDiii,
We send this to thee,
Because,
Well, caring are we.

Today,
I take a new way,
Poetry,
For your Birthday.

I have a big problem with Anti-Abortion laws. They simply cannot protect woman's rights, they are specifically meant to deny a pregnant woman her rights. This, I cannot accept.

Then folks talk about the great exception...
The life of the mother.

I hear about how all these laws do or will have an "exception" for the "life of the mother". What about the dabilitating injury of the mother? What about the "general non-specific health risk" of the mother? What about a case where a woman has a disease, and that there is a chance that this disease could be adversely affected by pregnancy? There are a number of illnesses that are affected by hormones. Crohn's is a fairly common one. Chances are low, for some, high for others. Either way, it's VERY RARE that the LIFE of the mother would be at stake. The ability of the mother to live on without a major bowel resection, a life of taking liquid syringe form of whatever nutrients their bowel no longer absorbs, and maybe even a colostomy... Those are at risk.

So, someone may naturally say - 'oh, well, a Crohn's exception would be important.' Or worse, 'screw her, she knows she has Crohn's, she should be extra careful.' But the problem isn't just Crohn's. It isn't just bowel issues. There are mental issues that are also affected by hormonal changes. The law, once enacted, doesn't give a shit about how someone may be adversely affected - just by the pregnancy (forget about the whole, after the baby is born thing). If you can't stay healthy through the pregnancy - what right does your state have to tell you that you are not allowed to treat your health issue. How many drugs, and other chemical cures are denied, simply because a woman is or may be pregnant?

That means, that such decisions and determinations need to be a decision between a doctor and a potential mother. Just like any other medical treatment. This is not a place for the state.

A lot of extremely intelligent people work on the whole "Pro Life" side, but never have any of them put in a set of exceptions that will 1) create a safe environment for women and 2) will not be bypassed easily by simply finding the right Doctor.

Finally, if you a Christian who believes in the whole religious aspect, may I remind you that the Apostle Matthew suggested that we not judge. That is to say, let God sort it out. If that Doctor, or that pregnant woman committed murder in the eyes of God... then God will deal with them accordingly.

O.K.

I'm a western science kinda guy. I don't know where I got it, but I have this automatic assumption that science is the best answer. There's this whole thing now about how herbal medicines make no money, thus... get no scientific funding, so maybe could be so much better than scientific medicines. Then I think of Bayer, and how they've made a small fortune on a very herbal medicine, that is also accepted by western medicine.

So, I'm sick, and my mother tells me that I absolutely must take Oil of Oregeno (or Oreganol), and it'll "knock out" any infection in my throat. So, being a really skeptical guy, but not wanting to tell my mother that I think she's a flake... and only just now, MAYBE feeling well enough to actually get out of the house to get this odd stuff... What's your take?

I fell ill on Sunday, but it didn't hit me until late in the day. All the better, really. Sunday was my birthday, and that would have sucked had I felt this bad the whole day.

So, yeah - it's Tuesday, Valentines day, and I've got this fever that won't go away, and I want to play with my new iPOD (birthday gift), and figure out how to make it work, but I'm not willing to buy a specific encoder, and making stuff compile takes thought over headache, tiredness and other pains*

That said, I've tried a few things, and I've got my 10GB of music loaded (who'd a thunk it - less than 18G left?).

My mom (bless her heart) sent me gummy coke bottles [ 5 pounds of them ], and a case of glass-bottled Green River (think Lime Phosphates, if you even have that as a reference). She also sent me a COPY of a DVD, but it didn't actually copy (the menu works, the previews are all there, and the special features are mostly there).. the movie itself is missing (this DVD doesn't use Title-1 as the main feature, so it probably messed up her copy program). So, I might actually have to go RENT Curse of the Ware Rabbit (which I still haven't seen).

I am going to get off my lazy butt, and attempt to make dinner for the family (I've been home two day, I've got to do something).

*This is my interpretation of "spoons", but since I'm not sure if the translation is right, I chose to footnote it.