David Dworin Online

Archive for December, 2008

Currency Collapse and the Nobel Prize

December 9, 2008 12:55 am

The Swedish Kronor (SEK) has taken a steep slide against the U.S. Dollar since it was announced that Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in October.  So much so that an article linked to by Greg Mankiw was off by over $200k in estimating the price of the prize in dollars.  Makes me wish I had taken my vacation a few months later.

Three month chart of Swedish Kronor against US Dollar

Three month chart of Swedish Kronor against US Dollar

10 Things Not To Write In E-mail When Breaking the Law

December 4, 2008 12:34 pm

CEO of E-Discovery software Catphora tells Death by Email the top ten phrases in emails  that tell lawyers interesting things:

  1. “I could get into trouble for telling you this, but…”
  2. “Delete this email immediately.”
  3. “I really shouldn’t put this in writing.”
  4. “Don’t tell So-and-So.” Or, “Don’t send this to So-and-So.”
  5. “She/He/They will never find out.”
  6. “We’re going to do this differently than normal.”
  7. “I don’t think I am supposed to know this, but…”
  8. “I don’t want to discuss this in e-mail. Please give me a call.”
  9. “Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.”
  10. “Is this actually legal?”

#2 is naive – there’s no such thing as “deleting” an e-mail anymore unless you’re a sysadmin, and even then it’s a chore.  I imagine lawyers searching on #4 finding a lot of birthday party invites.  The real kicker for me is #10 – if you have to ask if something is legal, it’s probably not ethical, and almost always a bad idea.

Via Evil HR Lady.

Risks in Pirate Ransom Transactions

December 3, 2008 11:33 pm

Arranging to deliver the ransom for the Ukranian ship captured by Somali pirates, and to receive the ship and hostage crew in return is a delicate matter without a legal framework to reduce the counterparty risk (sort of like a drug buy):

More from market-design guru Al Roth’s new blog.

Best iPhone Glitch Ever

December 2, 2008 1:20 pm

A request for help on Apple’s support forums:

Please help! I took my husband’s i-phone and found a raunchy picture of him attached to an e-mail to a woman in his sent e-mail file (a Yahoo account). When I approached him about this (I think that he is cheating on me) he admitted that he took the picture but says that he never sent it to anyone. He claims that he went to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store and they told him that it is an i-phone glitch: that photos sometimes automatically attach themselves to an e-mail address and appear in the sent folder, even though no e-mail was ever sent. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? The future of my marriage depends on this answer!

I wonder if they have a “best-of” like Craigslist.

Random Picture: The West Loop at Night

1:16 pm

A random picture I took outside my friend’s office window last night:

A view of the West Loop at night.

A view of the West Loop at night.

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