Monday, October 31, 2005
Comment Server Finally Online

This has taken me a bit longer than I thought, but I finally got around to it. All the Blogs on www.MarkusEgger.com now support comments. So if you have anything interesting to comment about, pick an individual blog entry and post a comment through the interface at the very bottom.

Note: I am still messing with this and it is not completely finished. For instance, the UI won't remember you from one comment to the next, but that should be fixed soon too.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Gas Prices: An International Comparison

I am sure you noticed it too: gas prices are sky-high!

Gas prices have been going up for a while, and to be honest, I didn't pay all that much attention to it. After all, being from Europe, I am used to significantly higher gas prices (or so I thought). Recently however, I have started to think about this a bit more.

When I first came to the US, gas prices were extremely low. I remember filling up somewhere in North Carolina, thinking "this is cool... the gallon indicator spins faster than the $ indicator...". In other words: A gallon was less than a buck at that gas station. In the relatively recent past, gas prices seemed pretty reasonable to me, especially since I live in Texas.

Just the other day, someone said "gee... gas prices are really bad here now... I can't imagine what it must have been like for you in Europe where you had to pay even more...". That got me thinking. Did I actually pay more there? I decided to do a little comparison.

Unfortunately, it isn't all that easy to compare gas price and gas value between the US and Europe (or Austria in this particular case). We are dealing with U$ to Euro conversion. We are dealing with gallon to liter conversion. Furthermore, we also deal with miles to kilometer conversion, and it gets even tricker when you compare actual consumption. But here is what I found:

Simple Price Comparison

• Gas price in the US today: $2.725 a gallon (according to EIA)
• Gas price in Austria today: Euro 1.079 per liter (according to ARBOE)

A gallon is 3.79 liters (close enough for our needs anyway). So that makes for Euro 4.089 per gallon.

Today, 1 Euro = 1.2 U$. Therefore, 1 gallon in Austria today is $ 4.907.

So if we do a simple price comparison, gas is about 80% more expensive in Europe (Austria) than it is in the US.

Usage Based Comparison

But this isn't really the whole story. People always look at the price of gas, but do they really care? I don't think so! What people really care about is how much it costs them to get from point A to point B. Or, they care about how much the commute to work costs them each month. In other words: How much does it cost to buy the amount of gas I actually need?

To answer that question, we have to compare how much it costs to go a mile (or 100 miles). For that, we need to know a bit more about the cars people drive in each country. I do not have any good data for averages, so I am just going to use my cars as an example:

• In the US, we have a Ford Explorer. It has a big engine and big interior. It handles badly and does not go very fast. But it is big. We get 16 miles to the gallon.
• In Europe, we have a Mercedes. It has a smaller engine, although the horsepower output is comparable. It goes probably twice as fast, and handles great. It is a smaller car. In 100km, it consumes about 7 liters of fuel.

Comparing these two cars gives you a bit of an idea of why it is difficult to compare fuel consumption. In the US, we measure how many miles we can go per gallon of gas. In Europe, we measure how many liters of fuel it takes to go 100 kilometers. Nothing matches!

So let's solve this puzzle: 7 liters for 100 km means that it takes 11 liters to go 100 miles, or to make the transition complete, it takes 2.9 gallons to go 100 miles. Or, if we want to look at it from another angle, we can drive close to 35 miles per gallon. (The European car is more than twice as efficient). Therefore, we now know how much it costs to go 100 miles in each place respectively:

• US: $17.031 per 100 miles
• Austria: $7.903 per 100 miles

Now, all of a sudden, things do not look so rosy anymore! It turns out that I spend roughly 115% more on fuel in the US than I do in Europe! More than twice as much!

Of course, Ford Explorers are probably not the most representative example (but then again, in Texas, they might be). You can easily redo the comparison if your gas mileage is in the 20's. Also, the Mercedes is not exactly considered fuel efficient, especially since it isn't a new car. Plus, had I gotten the same model with a diesel engine (relatively common in Europe), I would have enjoyed better mileage and lower per-liter price.

Exchange Rate Adjustment

At this point, we have already figured out Europeans now spend less on gas than Americans (an unbelievable development if you look at how the comparison worked out historically). What is interesting is that current exchange rates actually skew things against the Euro. Had we done the same comparison a few years ago, one could have bought Euro 1.1 for a dollar. Today, a dollar only buys you 83 Euro cents.

So obviously, things have gotten more expensive in Europe, right? Well, no, not so fast! If you are about to go on a vacation in Europe, then that calculation is correct. You will have to spend a significantly higher dollar amount to buy the same value compared to a few years ago. This is because the dollar's drop has been extreme.

However, if you live in Europe and all your income is in Euros, then not much has changed. You are not making more or less just because the bottom has fallen out of the US dollar. In other words: If you made Euro 1,000 several years ago, then you are still making Euro 1,000 today (ignoring inflation and raises here), and the amount you invest (in cash or in time it took you to earn that cash) to buy something worth Euro 1000 is still Euro 1000. So if you spend 50 bucks on gas a month, then that 50 bucks is the same percentage of your income today as it was several years ago. If you use dollars on the other hand, you are now spending U$ 1.200 to buy 1000 Euros worth of stuff, while a few years ago, you could have bought the same stuff for 900 bucks. A 33% increase in price.

So what I am getting at here is that when Europeans buy gas, they really spend more like $4.089 per gallon, and not the $4.907 we calculated (parity between U$ and Euro is what a lot of people consider a "normal" and "healthy" exchange rate). Just based on math, this seems wrong, but in terms of how it feels to people, it is more representative, because people also technically now make 25%-33% more there than they mathematically did several years ago (from a US point of view).

So taking this in consideration as well, our calculation now works out more like this:

• US: $17.031 per 100 miles
• Austria: $6.592 per 100 miles

So looking at it this way, Americans spend over 2 1/2 times (258%) the amount on gas compared to their European counterparts. Ouch!

Increase Comparison

It is also interesting to compare the increase in gas price over the last few years, let's say from 2000 to today.

		2000		2005		Increase %
United States		$1.250 per gallon		$ 2.725 per gallon		118%
Europe		Euro 1.020 per liter		Euro 1.079 per liter		5%

This isn't good. There is no way to sugar coat this. For everyone in the US except the oil industry, these numbers are bad. And even for oil guys, this is not good news forever, because eventually the economy will suffer too much from this, which will ultimately hurt them as well.

I am surprised people aren't up in arms about this a lot more than they are. A 118% increase in 5 years! Just to put it in perspective: If we were to keep going like this, a gallon of fuel would be $5.94 in 2010, $12.95 in 2015, $28.23 in 2020, and $61.54 in 2025! 20 years is not that far off! Can you imagine paying over 60 bucks for a gallon of fuel? Me neither. But neither could I have imagined in 2000 that prices would raise as much as they have...

I am not sure why the price of gas and oil is so high right now, to be honest. There is a surplus of crude oil according to OPEC, so how can a barrel of oil be as expensive as it is right now and thus cause gas prices to go sky high?. How can something we have in abundance go up in price? I understand that we will have a problem with oil in the future once we start running out, but right now?!? I guess it is just all based on perception and how we perceive the current "global" situation (I am putting it in quotes, because the "global" situation is seen drastically different in different places).

Personally, I am very seriously thinking about buying an electric car...

Sunday, October 16, 2005
Spicing Things Up in Eugene

If you read my last post, you may have been wondering where I was going when I was in such a hurry to get to the airport.

To be honest, there is no exciting story hidden here. I went back to Eugene, Oregon, to meet with the same client I had met with a while back (and who I was supposed to meet with while I was stuck in Austria with my dental problems). So it was pretty much all work and I am sure readers are not too excited about reading several days worth of meeting minutes. ;-)

However, the trip was pretty enjoyable. There are no direct flights from Houston to Eugene (a pretty unusual situation... you can go direct almost anywhere from Houston) so we had a stop-over in Phoenix (we purposely avoided a Salt Lake City stop-over, after the last disaster ). This worked out much better and we managed to get to Eugene as planned. We travelled on America West, which is always pretty bad in itself (at least in my book), and they had the usual old planes and bad service, as well as the zone-boarding I hate so much (and just to prove my point: Yes, we experienced delays again!). Overall, there wasn't anything wrong with the flight in particular, it was just bad service and an old plane. In short: The best America West flight I had in years.

We stayed at the Eugene Phoenix Inn , which I can recommend. It isn't a very fancy place, and in fact, it is too small to even have room service (thus crushing my hopes for a room-served club sandwhich), but for the price it is a good value (and it probably is bigger than you would think reading these lines). Rooms are clean and pretty big. They also have free wireless high-speed Internet in all rooms. Overall, I was very satisfied with the hotel. Compared to other high-price properties I stay at (compare this to the Sheraton stay in L.A. for instance), this worked out very well.

We went to some nice restaurants on this trip. Most noteworthy: We went to 2 different Thai restaurants, both of which were very good. The first night, we went to Manola's. I ate the obligatory Paanang Chicken, and it must have been the spiciest meal I've ever consumed (and I like spicy food and am quite used to it!). This was almost too much for me, but it was so good, I ate the whole thing anyway. (It didn't work out all that well, but I'll spare you the details...). 2 days later, we ended up at Sweet Basil, another Thai restaurant, and just for the heck of it, I decided to compare the Paanang Chicken. Turns out Sweet Basil's was even better and not nearly as spicy! On my next trip to Eugene, I am pretty likely to return to either restaurant I would say. I guess I could always tell Manola's to prepare my dish a bit milder. But do real men really do that? ;-)

Sunday, October 09, 2005
Another Trip to Seattle (and Redmond)

I've had pretty busy couple of weeks, hence the lack of blog entries. In fact, I am just about to leave for another trip, but I got about 10 minutes, so I thought I might be able to let you know what I had been up to...

A few days of this past week, and several days the week before, I had been back to Seattle (another Microsoft visit). Most of it was business once again, but it is still always fun to go to Seattle. 3 of the days I spent there I attended a "by invitation only" conference, which was pretty cool. The conference itself was in Redmond where Microsoft is, but we ended up staying at the Double Tree hotel in Bellevue.

Whenever I need to go to Redmond I have a bit of a conundrum as to where to stay. There is a very nice little Motel (Homestead) right at the Microsoft campus. For work, that is a great choice, since it is right on the Microsoft campus. The facility itself is nothing special at all. Just one of those little extended visit places where you get a rather ordinary room but you have your own fridge. I stay there because of the convenience and also because the hotel has a great Internet connection, which is important to me. (Beware: There is another Homestead that claims to be close to Microsoft, but that is not the main Microsoft campus!).

I often also choose to stay right in Seattle at the Westin. This is a very nice hotel that - contrary to the Homestead - is just a nice place to stay. It has one of the best (if not the best) gyms I have seen in a hotel. And it is right down town, which I like a lot. But there is the traffic that is a pain pretty much regardless of where you need to go. Especially going to Redmond, you need to allow for some extra travel time. (You will need a car, but that is pretty much a given on this sort of trip. Extra tip: The SeaTac airport has rental car facilities right in the airport, as well as some that are outside the airport. Go with one inside the airport! Everything else is a major waste of time, and it will also be hard to find your way around. I am pretty good with directions, but I once even missed my flight because I just could not find my way as quickly as I had thought.)

Bellevue is very close to Redmond and also a relatively good pick, although traffic is still bad. The big advantage is that when going from Seattle to Redmond, one has to cross one of the bridges over lake Washington. That is always a problem. Bellevue is on the "Redmond side" of the lake, so this pain-point is removed. However, I hardly ever choose Bellevue as my place to stay, because unless I get the benefits of down town Seattle, I might as well stay in Redmond. The Double Tree we stayed at this time was OK, but nothing special. I don't think I can think of any particular reason to pick it on future trips.

There were a few things we did on this trip that were kind of cool from a plain travel point of view: We went to the Football Stadium where we were invited to a private party at the VIP area (with 1500 other people). This was fun, although a bit odd, because there was no game on. But it was still a decent place to have a party for this many people. I also got in trouble with a security guard. I talked about lifting up a friend to he could reach a helium filled balloon that had floatet to the ceiling. The guard overheard that and gave me a rather rude lecture. C'mon! Is she seriously claiming that someone sat down and wrote down a rule that says "...in this building, no human shall lift another"?

There was a second party we went to also that was cool: We went to the EMP right by the Space Needle. This is the place Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen built. It is kind of a weird place that has all kinds of music related things going on. A big area where you just experience music. Another where you can play different instruments yourself. A karaoke area. A recording studio you can use. Even a music museum. And somewhat unrelated: There also is a great sci-fi museum right there. This was a very cool place to have a party, because it allowed people to circulate and mingle, and at the same time there was lots of stuff to do, so it never got boring, and one always had a good excuse to loose unwanted company. ;-)

Finally, on the weekend, we were invited to a BBQ in Tacoma (past Tacoma and past the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, actually). It always surprises me how far that is from Seattle. When we left Seattle it was raining hard (the whether was bad the entire time) and I thought this would be a BYOS (bring your own snorkel) sort of BBQ. But as it turned out, the weather was OK at my friends house (where the BBQ was) and it was great. The ribs rocked!

One the way back, we flew our of SeaTac on a course that brought s very close to Mount Rainier. It is always a spectacular view, but this time it was particularly great. I never get tired of this view!

OK, this is it for now. I was supposed to leave for the airport 10 minutes ago, so I guess I better get going...