This came by my in mailbox the other day:

Johns Hopkins Gazette | February 4, 2008

This year, about 15,950 students are vying for about 1,200 spots in the 2008 fall freshman class in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering, said John Latting, dean of undergraduate admissions. That’s up more than 7 percent from last year’s 14,848 applications and nearly 79 percent from 8,929 six years ago.

Whoa…when I applied, there were only 8466 applicants!

I wonder what explains this whopping 88% increase in 12 years. I suppose students could be applying to many more schools than ever. I remember I applied to like 10 - some of my friends applied to 15. (I would later find out that 5 was sort of normal back then.) Also, Hopkins is physically a dramatically better place than it was when I was there. Every time I go back, like I did in February, it just looks better (read: safer, more college like) than ever.

That said, I hear the trend is like this for many other schools as well. So perhaps the competition has just gotten dramatically higher - just like the competition for getting into Day Care. (If you’re not a WSJ subscriber - the one sentence summary is: Get on the wait list before you get pregnant.)

Lately I’ve noticed that there has been a real crackdown on speeding on 101 during the weekends. On Saturday night, during the torrential rains, there was an officer stationed here:

There would’ve been simply no way to know that unless one had a radar detector.

GG.

The NY Times today had a piece on different proposals floated by Congress, Banks, and others to bail out homeowners who are “underwater.” There are also some quotes from people who believe that someone (namely, you and I) should help them at least break even on their houses that they’re trying to sell.

But among other things was this curious graph:

Rescues for Homeowners in Debt Weighed - New York Times

Thinking back to 2000, it should be recalled that the .com boom was also primarily in the West. There was also the Gold Rush of 1849.

Is there something inherent about the West that makes it more prone to bubble economics? Is the Northeast less prone because of the proximity to Wall St, and the ability for analysts to take a short drive to actually check out the situation for themselves? Is there more optimism in the West?

I wish the Freakonomics blog would investigate this.

Microsoft bought me one of these once - and I liked it so much, I ordered 2 more for home.

Humanscale Mouse Mate Palm Rest

Basically it attaches to the end of your mouse, and forces you to use your whole arm to move the mouse, instead of constantly using your wrist - which is a bad thing.

A good prevention tip for those who want to mitigate their risks of carpal or any other nasty mousing illness.

The other day Billy Joel announced that he was going to be performing at Shea Stadium this summer. The significance is that it will be the last concert ever at Shea Stadium. Now, I’m not a super Billy Joel fan or anything, but I was thinking it’d be neat to go - especially since it’s around my birthday. Tickets are being sold on two official sites starting this Saturday.

Not to pull a Hannah Montanagate, but I was rather surprised when I checked StubHub and found this:

What the heck? Tickets are on sale this Saturday, yet 209 of them are already available here?

Now, it’s possible that some of these tickets don’t actually exist - the seller is hoping to get them and then fulfill the order. I simply don’t know enough about Stubhub or concert tickets to know if this is the case.

But frankly, I hope that’s what is happening here - otherwise, this is pretty ridiculous.

Consumerist.com is fast becoming my favorite blog to read. Here’s a recent piece about a seller who got scammed on ebay and paypal:

Complaints: Seller Gets Scammed On eBay Despite Doing Everything Right

Read the tragic tale of this screwed eBay seller over on Metafilter. He did everything Paypal told him to do to avoid being scammed when he sold a cellphone, including, when the buyer returned the item, opening it in front of a police officer. Problem was, the buyer/scammer sent back a smashed gold cellphone instead of nice $500+ cellphone that was sold. Seller protection policy should apply, right? Nope, it doesn’t cover "items not as described." Failure.

But that’s not the worst part - for that, read through the comments and see the litany of complaints from both buyers and sellers. Apparently, there are many many ways to get scammed since it appears ebay and paypal are not always particularly active in investigating, or refunding your money.

Talk about one sad and depressing thread. I use ebay from time to time, and now I’m definitely less inclined to do so.

Typically when you think of ice on the sidewalk, you think of a white-ish coating that… like… well… a frosted sidewalk. Tonight here in Baltimore, it was just warm enough to rain, but cold enough to freeze. The result was sidewalks that had a perfectly clear glaze - as if someone layered impossibly polished glass over the walkways. It’s amazingly deceptive. And incredibly dangerous.

People were slipping, sliding, and falling everywhere - clinging onto fences, poles and even shrubs. Usually in situations like this, the safest course of action is to walk on top of patches of grass - except those had been glazed over too. Failing that, the next safest course of action is to walk in the roadway of a busy street since cars warm up the road. The drawback is, of course, that you’re walking in the roadway of a busy street.

Someone (can’t remember who) told me that a Bay Area native once said that “Snow is a place you go to.”

It kind of makes sense - snow isn’t a kind of weather if it doesn’t happen. Just like beach can’t happen - it’s a place.

The last two times I’ve seen snow was today, and about a year ago in Redmond. Snow is fast becoming a place for me too.

Apple //c - a photoset on Flickr

On Thursday night, Kathryn and I unboxed my latest Ebay acquisition: an Apple //c. There are many vintage Apple II computers available for auction, but this one is special:

It’s never been opened. Ever. It hasn’t seen the light of day since before it was shipped on May 5th, 1988.

I wrestled with whether I should open the box, or store it and let it accrue collector’s value. In the end, I decided that the reason for my purchase wasn’t financial. My very first computer was an Apple //c, and I can’t see wanting to part with this computer, ever.

Wow… what a flash from the past. My very first computer was also the Apple //c - with ROM version 3.

I wonder where that and my Mac LC went. Hm.