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December 3, 2003

Feebware

I got an offer from Landware this morning for a free copy of the company's tip calculator for the Palm. I think I solved the problem this software addresses in high school, by habitually assuming a 20% tip (which is really easy to calculate for anyone who can divide by five, or divide by ten and multiply by two). But I think "the baseline 20% tip" is an indicator of Marxist leanings in some circles, where my "service was slow and it was all your fault" punitive 15% tip (trickier: divide by ten, keep that sum, divide it by two, add that result to the original sum) is the default, and then grudgingly.

We walked down to a coffee shop we've been favoring the past week and I got my Mexican mocha from the woman I believe is the owner. Tipping the owner is weird, so I didn't much mind that I didn't have any change to plunk in the tip jar on the counter. Then I thought "now she'll think I'm a cheapskate, because she probably doesn't know that I know she's the owner." Then I thought "Well, that's her problem." Then I thought "But what if she just leaves the tip jar alone and lets the afternoon/evening shift just have the day's take?"

I found a quarter and a dime and managed to give them enough of a spin coming out of my hand that they sounded like several large coins... $0.75 easy if she was listening.