The Iron Yuppie

New York Post Online Edition: entertainment



I know this is why I wear glasses. Actually, I'm a bit surprised. I never heard that much about Tara Reid being crazy or party girl or anything until recently, but now everyone is freaking out about her. Being a star is such a pain in the ass. The life is great, you have to admit, but one must constantly walk a fine line. You must be the name on everyone's lips, but not because you're crazy. You have to constantly get your name in the news, but not look like you're trying to get your name in the news. It's absurd! Can you imagine if our daily life was like this?

A: Bill in accounting just put together a phenomenal report, good for him!
B: But did you hear, he just broke up with his girlfriend... I think she was cheating on him.
C: Cheating on him, ha! She caught him going out to strip clubs all weekend.
B: That's it, I'm never reading another report that Bill does.
C: Hey, I'd rather be Bill in Accounting than Sarah in HR. I haven't heard about her in months!

On second thought, maybe real life is like this.

Instapundit.com on Malaria

Instapundit's point is that malaria kills more per year than many tsunamis, yet we fail to spray DDT to solve this problem. I think this kind of thinking is absolutely right (find the biggest problem and solve that, rather than the very serious but extremely sporadic natural disaster), but the persistence of DDT is just too nasty to contemplate. Agreed that we need to solve the malaria problem, but there has got to be a better way. Just because I have the chance of having my car stolen does not mean I should key the shit out of it to deter the thief. We have some of the most specific chemicals ever created for drugs and other medicines. Surely there is SOMETHING we can do with mosquitos and/or malaria that won't stay in the food chain for countless generations.

MSNBC - Disclosure and glass houses

The attached link is a story by Glenn Reynolds (instapundit) which highlights a key problem with news coverage today. I think there are two major problems, both of which impune the news in any number of ways. The first was wonderfully identified by Steven Colbert during an interview on Fresh Air. It breaks down to this: there are a finite number of news items that occur every day (that are widely interesting), and that number has not significantly increased since the number of 20 years ago when there were 3 hours of news on TV (one per major network). Yet now we see 24 hours of news, blogs, etc... and how does the extra data get filled in? Opinion. Which actually leads to the second problem... all opinion is not equal (discussed briefly (warning: ugly self quoting follows) here )! Let me demonstrate:

A: Is the Earth flat?
B: Yes, I don't think there's any question the Earth is flat.
C: Uh, no, the Earth is not flat, you can fly around it, we have pictures of it from space, etc etc
B: Well, that's your opinion. I ask you, look around, do you see the Earth curving anywhere? When you drop a marble on the ground, does it roll away from you?
A: He has some good points, C how do you respond?
C: Just because you can't see it does not mean it's not happening. In fact the marble example you use would not even work because...
B: (Interrupts) So let me get this straight, you have not even SEEN the Earth curve, yet you expect US to believe it? I'm sorry, I need a little more proof than that.
C: I have proof, it's right...
A: (Interrupts) I'm sorry, we're out of time. Thank you both for this important discussion. Later on "365 New Talk Show with Yelling Guy" we discuss, "If the Earth WAS round, how would it affect you?"

And so on.

To the point covered in the original story, my only problem with the different "scandals" when it comes to opinion being funded, or voter fraud, or whatever, is that they are all made to be equivalent. As these debates go on, I hope the main stream media (or whomever is covering the story) at least makes SOME attempt to put the two opinions about a given story in perspective. There are some things that seem pretty clear (disclose where you are getting money from, no matter how much) and others that just muddy the waters (don't blame Armstrong Williams, everybody does it, just look at DailyKos, etc).

TigerHawk

Sometimes, I don't understand what businesses are doing. There are a lot of recent studies that highlighted how simple statistics and modeling allowed businesses to be far more successful (the Oakland A's/Red Sox are two recent examples); I'm curious as to why more organizations are not going through this kind of process. To the point, I saw this same article in Fortune and Tigerhawk captures the essence quite well. G-rated movies make more money, why wouldn't movie studios focus on them?

The commentor on the same page highlights the real problem... is the situation that there are very few G-rated movies so they all get high returns but make up a lower percentage of total returns (thereby indicating the market for G-rated movies are saturated) or is there still room for more? You'd think that this would be what market forces would be perfect at finding out. Unfortunately, with so little flexibility in distribution, we do not have a true market economy for that end of the entertainment industry... yet!

Coyotos Secure Operating System via Slashdot

I see this kind of thing all the time, and not just in software. "Blah is broken; we need to totally rewrite/rerelease/throw-out the old version of blah!" I'd like to quote Joel on Software here:

[They made] the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make:

They decided to rewrite the code from scratch.

Don't throw away, reuse! I was a big fan of this theory in '99-2000 when I was the CTO of a company and yet when the VCs came in and said throw it all out, I did! Never again (he says with ominous sounds in the background).

To the point at hand, as an intellectual exercise, this new "secure" operating system is interesting. But you will have no users of it except in very limited custom applications, you will have no apps for it and, more importantly, the time spent designing this operating system from scratch would be much better spent on securing (either in code, or through procedures) existing operating systems. Linux, MacOS, Windows XP, etc etc all have the ability to be far more secure than you would ever need, and the only reason they are or are not is because application vendors need a little insecurity or else it would be brutally hard to run ("You just double-clicked an application that has not be dual signed by two trusted parties, would you like to run it?")

Good night!



Uh, this monster is called the "Future Proof" stereo. It costs $4k. I can guarantee 2 things.

1) If you buy this, there will be something else that comes along that you will need an adapter for. This device has swappable boards, so you can add that new adapter right in and you're safe.
2) You will never use more than 30% of the connections on here. Additionally, you will never need to swap out the board.

Number two seems kind of odd, but I can say it with 99% accuracy. Yes, there's the outlier in every population, but, trust me, you do not need it. Further, if you did the math, I guarantee if you bought a $1500 receiver, then waited until you really could not attach some device, and bought a new $1500 receiver at that time, it'd be cheaper and better quality overall. Buy what you need, not what you think you need!

D

PS3 and Xbox 2

I found another article here:

TIMEasia.com Business: Sony Plays for the Big Stakes: "Here's the world Kutaragi envisions: from your mobile phone, you send an e-mail telling the machine to turn up the air-conditioning at home. 'Welcome home,' it purrs when you open the front door; it then puts your video e-mail on the TV monitor. You command the [console] to download the movie you want and play it 30 minutes later. Mid-film, you stop to cue up a video game featuring the movie's main characters. Then you e-mail a virtual friend you met online who also likes this game; you face off against each other. "

Oops, that's about PS2 and from 2000. Look at how many of those things you can do today... none. Here's what I guarantee about the Xbox++, Gamecube++, PS++... it will have more processing power, more memory and will have some kind of game pad type device that you will use to control "video games". Anything else you read about this stuff now is worthless.

One thing that's kind of bad for Nintendo and Sony, however, is this quote:

Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, said Mr Armes, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo to send kits.

Wow, that's really really bad. If this is the case, I am not sure how either of those consoles will be able to launch by the end of the year, and even if they do, I have no idea how they are going to have launch titles from any third parties. Eleven months is practically nothing when you talk about developing games on these types of platforms.

E-MU 0404 Digital Audio System

I've always wanted to compose music. Actually, it's a recent passion of mine to attempt any sort of artistic expression (painting, writing, music, etc), but computerized music, that should be right up my alley! The really cool thing about this very cheap and very effective card is that it's virtually no cost to get started. The only problem is that this takes actual talent with instruments in order to make it work. I guess I'll be stuck working with ReBirth, which is great, but without some kind of vocals, it really leaves the entire exercise flat.

TigerHawk

This is how weird the rancor on both sides has become. Maybe not become, maybe it was always this way, but now it's just obvious to everyone thanks to the web.

Nonetheless, the author says that the NYTimes understates the rally. While it is true that the rally could have been portrayed as bigger, the stats on Bush's rally is exactly correct. I do not know if they used all rallies equivalently (all windows were looked at from the day before election day to one week post election day), but again, the data is correct and labelled correctly. Yet because it does not portray Mr. Bush as positive ENOUGH, the author warns about believing the numbers/the Times. I would love people to just attempt to tone it down a little bit. I wonder if you fold in the results from January, would this individual be just as pissed?

Fool.com: Google's Billion-Dollar Idea [Motley Fool Take] January 3, 2005

Now THIS is a billion dollar idea. Rather than sitting flat footed, waiting for the ads in the newspaper to have an effect, you could look at Google as dynamic demand generation. You have too many of x, you trigger an ad for x on Google. You have no more y, drop all your ads for y on Google. All tied in together to your systems. There's an elegance there that is difficult to overstate.

This is just the start though. There's a ubiquity to Google that I think a lot of people are missing. Remember, with ~1100 randomly sampled individuals, you're able to get a pretty good picture (95% accurate) of the US population as a whole. Mind you, that's truly random, and that's asking totally neutral questions, but that's the picture. If you increase the n, and reduce the amount of questions, you're able to get the same picture. Google roughly sees a hojillian people a day, but the sample is fairly biased. That said, if they saw x amount of people asking about laptops, or y amount of people asking about how to fix your basement using your patching trowel, and you could track those to an area, CompUSA or Home Depot would LOVE to know about it. Just-in-time the inventory request and simultaneously trigger an ad and you could have the extra items you need within a day or so, just as the people with the requests begin to associate your name with their need. It's quite remarkable.

Defamer: The contents of Owen Wilson's Speedo via Defamer

I warn you, don't click through. I warned you! Regardless, to quote DataLounge:

"'Owen Wilson's Enormous Wang' would be a great name for a band."

Agreed!

dottocomu: For your geek interior: Self-destruct button

GREATEST. DESK. TOY. EVER.

"Yes, I have those numbers for you... just a second. OH GOD! OH GOD, THEY'RE ATTACKING! WELL, I'LL SHOW THEM. GOD SAVE US ALL!"

Gizmodo : Funhaler via Gizmodo

This is an awesome device to make using an inhaler fun (well, fun-ish I suppose, since if you're using it, you're having an asthma attack). Especially cool is it uses basic marketing and toy principles (colors and spinning wheels = fun) combined with a basic device to encourage kids to use it and/or not make them look like pariahs.

I’d love to see this kind of strategy more often… imagine, an in-car breathalyzer that allows you to play Mario Kart before you drive (or while you’re waiting to sober up) or a blood sugar measure that plays Snoop whenever you measure. The basic philosophy is to make things that people normally find painful into tolerable by leveraging the design from other devices that are already addictive. Now if they could only invent a lifecycle machine that feels like a massage…

via Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools

Man, for $12, I'd be crazy NOT to buy this. Or, alternatively, I'd be crazy TO buy it since I'd likely feel the need to use it and, while the rational for usage would be solid, allowing me to be the user of said tool would surely invite disaster. Still neat though...

D

Schneier on Security: Microsoft RC4 Flaw

This is a real shame, as a lot of people who work at MS who really know a lot of about cryptography are going to be painted with the same brush as the individuals who coded this. Suffice it to say it is not that easy to break, as it does require two versions of the same document that have been changed from each other, but maintain the same password. But the amount of work required to avoid this situation is so minimal, it's a terrible situation. I wonder if the security review for office 12 caught this.

The Volokh Conspiracy

VERY interesting stuff. Linked to here is John Lott's (noted gun rights activist) response to the study. The quote that seems to be getting the most play in all the blogs is:

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

Interesting data! The exception, not mentioned here, was right-to-carry laws, which apparently does reduce crime. If I was running the next study, I'd like to see if the lack of effect is because gun control laws are not written correctly, or if this is accurate data across all types of laws (not just those that passed their legislative bodies). Did the study compare countries with no guns? What about those with more severe laws, but still allowed guns? Nonetheless, a very solid case has been made, the current gun control laws provide no benefit... and I am a big fan of "if something provides no benefit, it must be removed from the law".

Kudlow's Money Politic$: A Roaring Start

I thought this was a very interesting analysis of the budget, and certainly seems to indicate that things are getting better on the deficit front. I am not an economist, so please take all this with a grain of salt, but in last week's announcement about the trade deficit, the following was mentioned in Mr. Kudlow's report:

• After the first three months of the fiscal year beginning last October, cash outlays increased by 6.1% overall, while tax collections grew by 10.5%.
• The 2005 deficit is on track to drop to $355 billion from $413 billion in FY 2004.
• At this pace the new year deficit as a fraction of projected GDP will descend to 2.9% compared to last year's deficit share of 3.6%.

These facts, of course, will be interpreted differently depending if you're in favor or against the Bush administrations policies. Pro, you'll say that his tax cuts encouraged spending and increased employment. Con, you'll say that the economy would have done even more if it had not been for him. Unfortunately, all we have to draw the conclusions from is what you see there. Did the stock market rise because the capgains were reduced? Or did the US government leave money on the table? Ah the challenge of being an economist.

One thing that was mentioned in the comments, which I have no data on either, was that what is actually going on to reduce spending is a shifting of the expenses from federal budget to the states. Interesting thought and this might actually be ideal for how the country appears to be lining up. Today, if you don't like the way your government is behaving when it comes to an issue (stem cell research, as an example), your only choice is to found your company in another country. If states become more empowered, as California has done, you can still do what you'd like to do within the good-ol' US of A.

Fearless Critic: CJR -- Hopelessly out of Touch

Extraordinarily strong words, but may be closer to the truth that it originally seems. CJR correctly points out that the anti-Bush stories were real news, and deserved the reporting. Mr. Duffy (the Fearless Critic) also correctly points out a lot of stories which could have had (did have?) big headlines The problem here is there is no "standard" for what is a big story and what is not. Every one of the anti-Kerry stories he mentions, I had heard about and read up on. Does that mean it was a big story? And an individual will always think that their side of the story is being underrepresented compared to the opposition. Is the problem here that stories are not correctly being represented, or just a matter of personal belief? Part of the issue in Mr. Duffy’s comparison is the comparative sizes of each of the stories. Reasonable people can disagree about whether or not the Swift Boat accounts linkage to the Bush campaign was or was not as big a deal as MoveOn, America Coming Together, etc being tied to the Kerry campaign. My opinion is that given the message that the Swift Boat folks communicated, and the Bush campaign’s subsequent “fervent” denial, the two organizations being closely linked was a bigger story. But that is just my opinion. And to satisfy Mr. Duffy, I doubt there would be a single source that he would trust to measure the story size and then measure the story coverage. Balance in the news room is a good idea, but it will not make anyone on the right trust the NYT or anyone on the left trust the Washington Times.

IMAO: Blog Myths and Facts via IMAO

I'd say this is about right for most bloggers (myself included)! The best one, which falls into the "funny cause it's true" is:

MYTH: Bloggers are partisan hacks.
FACT: We lack the editing and proofreading to have the status of "hacks."

Social Security: There Is No Crisis

Apparently, someone with the $6.95 to register a domain name believes there is no crisis. I agree but by calling it "a fraud", it's just as bad as the people who disagree with you. They looked at the numbers and determined it is in crisis... I looked at (the analyses of) the numbers and I came to a different conclusion. It is not even whether or not it is in crisis, I want to know what the benefit will be. And if you say greater returns, how are you going to handle the risk?

Cellphone Towers In Iraq via John Robb's Weblog

Mr. Moyse says AsiaCell’s cell tower sites have been repeatedly attacked, though he explains that once a site is up and working the sabotage attempts usually subside, because “even bad guys want to use mobile phones.”

Man, if this isn't the very DEFINITION of economic assimilation, I don't know what is. Now all we need to do is figure out how to get them to try a Quarter Pounder and the McDonald's will be the new safe zone. Or better yet, a thickburger.

Tivo Walked Away From Comcast via PVRBlog

Jeez. I know I do not know about all the details, but clearly Tivo has decided to go alone. They've broken off with DirecTV and now, it seems, they've broken off from Comcast as well. Someday, when we all have IP TV, this would have been the right strategy, and you can get any channel directly from the source, Tivo will own the interface. But unless and until that happens, this may mean Tivo is marginalized for a long time to come.

I'll say this... Tivo got me addicted, but UltimateTV is still my device of choice. 30 second skip ahead, 7 second skip back, two tuners, DirecTV football... I'm not sure how I watched TV before this.

Hacking Coke Machines - Taking Advantage Of Technology

How totally cool... you can hack a coke machine. Apparently, it's really easy too... unless they've changed the default password, which, I guarantee, most have not.

Somasegar's WebLog

You've got to admit it, it's pretty cool that the vice president of a Forture 20 company is blogging. Of course it'd be nice if it was more than twice a month, but still!

iProduct via Gizmodo

I used to line up and buy the stuff every time they released it. I probably still would. And as the person who waits on line for these things, I can tell you that this ad is absolutely spot on.

danieldrezner.com :: A very important post about... food porn



MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... food porn.

And the ad for the thickburger.

A) I don't know why there's mayo on there. What is this, Canadia?
B) I'd have to get it without the bacon, in honor of my God.
C) People are so concerned with the calories... man calories come and go, and especially with something like this that is so much fat and protein, in the grand scheme, it's not that big a deal. My real problem with it is the sodium, which you can be sure breaks 1500 mg. 1.5 grams of salt? I was wandering through the grocery store the other day to discover that the pre-made soup had over a thousand grams of sodium. It boggles the mind.

While that burger above looks good, I think the one below is the one for me....

Now THIS is a burger. At least it has tomatoes.

Blog Your Way - Do publications have this type of reach?

Here's the follow up to my article of yesterday. This individual does a study on his blog roll and compares the typical media outlets (NYT, cNet, ZDNet, Wired, etc) to online blogs (Winer, Curry, Searls) and notes that the VAST majorities of stories appear to be from the online products rather than the more traditional ones. This may be the case, and certainly supports the Motley Fool piece, but a lot of this is just an artifact that the production of these other media types are not optimized for online pieces. As a result, there's a lot less linking to them and, obviously, will appear in a lot less blog rolls. I believe the publications listed have a much larger reach (probably by many orders of magnitude), but in this community they just do not appear. That is not to say they do not affect our community (notice how I saw our, as though I am a substantial contributer/participant in the blogsphere), just they do not appear in the links.

Gizmodo : Quirkle Quark

I don't know if it's worth $50 for a top (let alone $2500 for a 14k gold on) but this is totally bad ass... it's a top that keeps going for 15 minutes. How cool!

Fool.com: Newspapers Aren't Read All Over [Motley Fool Take] January 11, 2005

There have been a couple of stories like this recently about newspapers ceasing to be as interesting. Two quick comments: a) I still do not think anything in the instant world (blogsphere or cable news) is as well researched and thorough as a long article in the Times or WSJ; b) none of the media types dictate the quality of the news; that is the responsibility of the writer and editor (and there must be both)! I do think that paper media suffers but only because they have not yet caught onto the proper way to expand their reach. I love sitting down to read an entire set of articles about something, such as social security, in the Times, but that's not something I am going to do at work regardless of the format. Similarly, RSS feeds are great, but they're still not easy to take to an easy chair, even with a laptop. Different formats for different needs, please.

Economist.com | 100 years of Einstein

Unfortunately, the article is not exactly great (it requires a bit too much understanding of physics), but the sentiment is exactly right. In just over a year, Einstein changed the way that every one inside and outside physics looks at the world we live in. I like to think of myself as an optimist (well, a pessimist who has optimist leanings) and I can tell you this right now: I will NEVER affect the world in that way in such a short period of time. The most amazing thing about it is that he asked people to question their most fundamental beliefs about the way they knew the universe was constructed. This is akin to someone coming along and telling you the sun is going to rise in the west tomorrow, and then having the data to back it up. Of course, because this is theoretical physics, it’s more like someone telling you the sun is going to rise in the west tomorrow, then showing you why in the data, then the next day there’s a bit of light on the western horizon and you have to infer everything from there, only to have it verified or not verified 50 years later. One thing that I really admire about the field generally is the amazing deductions that they must make in order to prove their theories. High order math is the same way: if A, then B, then C, then D, then E… ok, we’re looking for E. I love that stuff.

More on Google and Open Source

To quote Theo de Raadt...

"But software which OpenBSD uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia."

People who defend Google by saying "the community their our search engine" have, as Mr. Obasanjo pointed out, really missed the boat. One could say that Hotmail contributes to the open source community even MORE since people in the open source community use it, but it does not even use their code! The GPL is just weird, plain and simple. It is really hard, in these IP sensitive times, to give something to someone and then ask to control how they use it. Google does not give anything back, at least not yet. When they post a kernel mod, or a server monitoring app they wrote, or whatever, then we can have a new conversation. But the chance of them posting enough back to the community to equal the amount that they have taken is vanishingly small. All the more reason to move to a BSD license. Either make it free (from all restrictions) or restrict it. None of this in between crap.

Lindsay Lohan Writes Own Big Easy Jokes via the Best Guilty Pleasure on the Web, Defamer



'She was just there with some castmates checking out the local scene. There was no 'partying.' She had one cranberry and soda.'

Blue Wrist Bands via Talking Points Memos

The site is down right now, but it looks like they were selling the rubber wrist bands like the LiveStrong ones but in blue (get it, cause they want you to vote like a Democratic)! Good thing too, because those things will only be 4 years out of date by the time the next election comes around.

NJ.com: Search via TalkingPointsMemo

Remind me again why anyone would want to run for public office? Here's a very smart guy who has controlled more money than you and I will ever see who's opinion I would have trusted implicitly when it came to huge public bills like Social Security Reform (or at least would have clearly understood his conflicts of interest). Now, is it a good opinion or merely a democratic shill? Nonetheless, he comes out against privatization in his local paper editorial.

Mockia's Deskia via Engadget



Man I love this. I HAD this idea about two months ago and these bastards stole it! I think this would be so hilarious to carry around. Can you imagine sitting down at a power lunch and whipping this thing out? Or what about going through airport security. Or calling from your car? The humor possibilities are endless! Or nearly endless, until you got a spasm from carrying this beast around all the time.

RSS Feeds for Search Results

Good for MSN. The search innovation battle is joined well and fully. I'm not even sure how I would use this... links that spit back out into my RSS reader? I hope people realize that the rssreader is quickly becoming THE interface for the web (i.e. Microsoft better get their IE in gear)!

The Command Line In 2004

If you have some extra (extra) time, you may wish to browse through Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning There was the Command Line which was interesting, but wrong, in 2000 and continues to be interesting, but wrong. This version adds something because the poster has added his own annotations which, unfortunately, are not as well thought-out as Mr. Stephenson's. Basically, I sum up my disagreement with Mr. Stephenson (who I think is otherwise a great, and generally right, writer) with the following quote:

But I never blamed the Hole Hawg [a very powerful drill that only professionals use]; I blamed myself. The Hole Hawg is dangerous because it does exactly what you tell it to. It is not bound by the physical limitations that are inherent in a cheap drill, and neither is it limited by safety interlocks that might be built into a homeowner's product by a liability-conscious manufacturer. The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it.

A smaller tool is dangerous too, but for a completely different reason: it tries to do what you tell it to, and fails in some way that is unpredictable and almost always undesirable. But the Hole Hawg is like the genie of the ancient fairy tales, who carries out his master's instructions literally and precisely and with unlimited power, often with disastrous, unforeseen consequences.

While it is true that you never want something to fail in unpredictable ways, this does not mean that people should go and use the super powerful version. It is not just liability-consciousness that causes manufacturers to put the guards on; 99% of the time, it is completely unnecessary to offer the kind of unrestrained power that at Hole Hawg provides! In fact, if you wanted a tool, the only thing you would want it to do is exactly what you wanted it to do. Nothing more, nothing less and you would not have to pay for functionality you did not use.

Linux suffers from this mentality. Because the designers want it to be able to do everything, that is exactly what it can do and, as a result, is extremely powerful but extremely unwieldy for stupid simple things that normal people do all the time. Before you get up in arms, I know full well that there are always ways around the difficult components, but how long did it take you to learn that way around? If you have not done it in 3 weeks, do you remember all the flags you're supposed to set? The discoverability of Linux really suffers (and I'm just the kind of geek who loves discovering it).

Windows, to a large extent, ALSO suffers from this problem, but it's definitely getting better. What you really want out of the OS is to know exactly when it would work, exactly when it would fail how to do all the things you want to do with it. I don't know any OS that has been smart enough to do that yet.

Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women: Guardian Angel bags




Oh this is brilliant. BRILLIANT. I plan to get my skull embossed with an extra large brain later. Then people will think I am smart!

Particularly funny is this:

Dutch designers Hein van Dam and Carolien Vlieger are behind the designs of handbags showing the outline of a gun, a crucifix or a knife.

Crucifix? I assume that's in case you're attacked my vampires.

[Update] Added picture

Networking Pipeline | Cingular Claims 3 Mbps Cellular Data Speeds In Test

I cannot wait for faster connections to my cell phone. I never thought I'd be one of those people who needed to check the web a hundred times while waiting for the elevator but, it turns out, I am one. Pity me.

The Stapleless Stapler via Engadget

This is cool despite the fact that I've been doing this for a hundred years by turning over the corner and tearing a little nub in the other direction. Still cool! All they need now is a little key ring to tie it to so when you're in a place with no staplers, at least you'll have this.

Drought's Growing Reach: NCAR Study Points to Global Warming as Key Factor via Slashdot

It's funny, but even as I'm posting this, I do not really see a reason to do so. Either you will read this and totally agree (which you likely did already) or read this and totally disagree (which you likely did already). It's a crisis, but only in the sense that things changing this dramatically in the environment over such a comparitively short period of geologic time is just really really fast. If I can leave you with one thing, it would be this: global warming is not just about the planet getting hotter; it is about massive changes across all sorts of measures (more rain, less rain, hurricanes, etc) and this kind of article is a very good representative example.

VisitorVille Intelligence: Learn how employees from 200,000 companies use the Web

I'm sure this says something about MS (as well as Yahoo, Google and other companies) employees, I'm just not sure what. I guess a lot of them have not gotten rid of their Google toolbars. I know I haven't... I have both the MSN toolbar and the Google toolbar up there.

Warning: The Hydrogen Economy May Be More Distant Than It Appears via Popular Science

Wow, I had some hope for the hydrogen economy. Some. Not as much as a lot of people, but some seemed ok. Reading this article makes it appear as if it is absolutely useless. Sometimes you'd like to just go up and stick an oilwell in saturn's atmosphere and, boom, you're done. Suffice it to say acquiring the hydrogen is only part of the very large problem. More and more it seems like getting a clean and efficient way to create electricity is the key to a non-fossil fuel based economy. My preference is nuclear power (be it fusion or fission).

NPR : A Different Take on Social Security

I know, I know, I'm an NPR junkie, mindlessly parroting everything they say. But the logic seems so sound in this story... If I was to believe that social security is in crisis, what am I missing?

JPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases

Even further details on how the Earthquake affected the rotation of the Earth. No, it still does not matter to you (READ: Reporters, stop saying it)! My favorite quote:

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car," Chao said.

Expedia.com Special Promotion

Though I received this mail, I think I pretty clearly do not fall in their target market in that a) I do not like cruises b) I do not value spending time with people who's only claim to fame is they were on a reality tv show for a short period of time.

Don't let me stop you though!

Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect

Saw this really nice summary on BitTorrent. If you have not heard of it, it will be (is?) the new person-to-person transfer of music, applications and just about anything else that can be stored on a hard drive. Because there is no central authority, and no way to really track down all the people who are sharing, the RIAA/MPAA are freaking out. Time to get a new business model guys...

Defamer: Monday Morning Box Office: Universal Owns Your Wallet

Man, if you're not reading Defamer, you're not enjoying the web. Obviously, I'm the only one who did not like Meet the Fockers cause it's making more money than you can shake a tired tired stick at. At least the Aviator is doing pretty well... I liked it quite a bit.

Donald Luskin on Social Security Reform & Crisis on NRO Financial

For the opposing view on whether or not there is a social security crisis, Donald Luskin weighs in the NRO. One can choose to agree or disagree about a variety of points in the article... I would only like to take issue with one point directly:

Funny how such equanimity and patience seem to elude them when the subject is global warming.

Actually, I feel that global warming is a crisis compared to social security since the case since there are news stories every day tying real occurrences to the effects of global warming. On the other hand, there have been virtually no examples of granny not getting her check on time or the government holding up a cardboard sign at my freeway exit. I'd say the affect on daily life defines the difference in their relevance and level of crisis.

D

Andrew Sullivan's Round Up of Pre-war predictions shortly after the Liberation via Eschaton

Heh, there's not enough of this going on. Read the attached for a list of quotes where Andrew Sullivan predicts history will find reporters who say that getting into Baghdad and/or keeping it will be extremely difficult are, in fact, morons. Suffice it to say, I think history probably does not agree with Andrew Sullivan. Sometimes I'd like to open up a blog that did nothing but take old articles involving predictions and compare them to ACTUAL events.

Particularly funny is this one:

Conventional Wisdom Watch, by Newsweek. A down-arrow for Dick Cheney: "Tells 'Meet the Press' just before war, 'We will be greeted as liberators.' An arrogant blunder for the ages." Nope, Newsweek. Yours was the "arrogant blunder for the ages." And on April 7!

Even IF Mr. Sullivan felt like this was the case, isn't using the status of Baghdad two days after liberation a bit premature to use as his measure for counter evidence?

I fear what people are going to be looking back at on my blog. Actually, I doubt you even have to go back that far. Just reference things I posted earlier in the day for a litany of contradictions.

D

DirecTV's HD future is MPEG-4

Man, it's about time. I believe current DirecTV is MPEG-1, which is just painful. Everytime I watch DirecTV (which I love) and something dark or foggy comes on, it looks like someone threw grey paint all over the screen. This, plus MediaCenter supporting HD and DirecTV, would be the absolute best.

D

Street Style - DrJays.com

Man, you have to click through this. It's people commenting on each other's clothing. But the comments are priceless. Example:

Stayin "DUG" Everyday!

"looking like a blue superman" -- Baby-Boy
"I'M NOT FEELIN THE PICNIC TABLE LOOK" -- street sexy

and so on... GOLD!

D

JustOneMinute: Krugman - Save Social Security Last

Man, take five minutes away from the blogsphere and miss a virtual riot. Riot of the day being whether or not social security needs saving (the above article links to at least half a dozen which comment Half of the people are saying no, half say yes, half comment negatively on those who say no, half comment negatively on those who say yes, leaving half to comment on how rancorous the entire set of people have become (this would be me).

My take? People love to argue and demonize the other side and that's basically what's happening here. As far as social security is concerned, there are a lot of people who simply cannot save enough to last them through retirement, and they need help. It's not a crisis; it's not even concerning. Privatize/do not privatize, I am not sure it will ever reach a crisis point. The distance of this thing reaching something maybe bad happening is 13 years away at the soonest, and, likely, no closer than 40 years. Between now and then there are about 65 million different things that can happen to the economy between now and then and all of them would likely change the potential outcome substantially. I do not think that means we should do nothing, but it is just not a crisis. I would like it if people started doing some basic math though...

TimeTrax turns iPod into a satellite radio time shifter - Engadget - www.engadget.com

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Timeshifting radio. Anyone want to tell me why I can watch "The Bachelorette 6000" or "Painful Pseudo-ethnic Sitcom" at 3 in the morning thanks to my Ultimate TV, but try and listen to Morning Edition or Howard stern at 10:01 AM in my car and I'm SOL? Man I would have thought radio would have dominated this change in media delivery long before television got around to it, but yet again I'm wrong. I wonder what the battery drain on your car would be to have a running hard drive and radio at all times? There's probably also a reception issue (not that easy to pickup radio on P3 underground). Nonetheless....

D

Guide for the Mexican Immigrant @ Something Awful

Man this is too funny. These Something Awful photoshop guys are spectacular.

I have to say, the migration handbook has got to be one of the weirdest decisions I've ever heard. Do we really think that immigrants are going to go stop by their local government agency before they set out on the journey north?

I love the critics though ... "we should not tell them how to survive in the desert because that will encourage them to cross". Yes, loss of life is definitely much better than having one more low wage worker cleaning your toilet.

Jon Stewart wins, CNN cancels Crossfire

There are a couple of really interesting points about this:

a) CNN's president, Jonathan Klein actually MENTIONED the Jon Stewart piece for the rational for killing the program. Wow.

b) Ars Technica correctly points out that this hardly solves the problem. The real problem goes back to something I mentioned earlier, presenting white and presenting black does not equal presenting grey. Those who believed in white STILL believe in white. Those who believe in black STILL believe in black. No one believes in grey.

Since I face this most days at work, I guess this seems sort of second nature to me, but I'm wondering why the first things that come out of the mouths of reporters are not "What's your source for that", "Who did the research" and "why do you think doing x will solve y". I'd love it if every press conference started with that.

My favorite question to someone who does not believe in a point I'm trying to make now is what would it take to get you to believe my point. It's silly saying things that I think are convincing if they're not convincing to the person I'm discussing it with. Although, with my long history of losing arguments, it appears that may not be a solid strategy.

The New York Times > Science > God (or Not), Physics and, of Course, Love: Scientists Take a Leap

Here's an abbreviated version thereof. I wish edge.org had a blog... i'd love to subscribe.

THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2005

What a fascinating question...

I'm leaning towards "That I do not have free will." That does not make me feel bad at all... it's actually kind of empowering. It's like I can do whatever I want any time I want because no matter what happens it would have happened anyway.

Boing Boing: Bill Gates: Free Culture advocates = Commies

Ok, using Commies was a bad term. But have you ever noticed how people who support creative commons and the lack of all patent and IP rights tend to be the people who do not own any of those rights? The same IP and patent rights that protect "Ashlee Simpson's" "new" "song" from being shared on Kazaa also protect the memory model in the Linux kernel from being modified and used in Cisco's new router without being rereleased. The real problem with patents, I believe, is that EVERYONE is not applying for them. Because you do not have equal behavior on both sides of the market (a kernel hacker who designs a new i/o driver model for Linux does not patent it; an Apple engineer who does the same work a short time later (without seeing the original work) does patent it), you get inequity and half the people say "Bad other side, you're cheating!" It's like you had people playing basketball only with one hand, and the other team decides to use both hands. It's not their fault for following the rules!

As far as abolishing all software patents and IP laws, that seems extreme. Let's face it, like it or not, corporations and individuals DO invest a lot of money because they can make it back on the other side. Whether or not 17 years is the right number, or the cost of getting a patent is set correctly, or the dynamics of the system are appropriate (especially around prior art and extension of patents into new areas based on application time) are all up for discussion. But, the right behavior now is to employ patent auditors who can tell what is obvious or not and for people out there to attempt to patent everything and let the market figure it out.