The Iron Yuppie

My girlfriend's sister correctly mentioned that I was going to blog about this.

There have been a few articles about Deep Throat recently that have just been mind-bogglingly one sided. Here's a good example from Ben Stein.

A counter point is here.

Maybe I'm horribly naive, but unless I'm mistaken here are the facts:

• Burglers broke into the Democratic Nation Comittee Head Quarters - this is illegal


• Individuals in the Nixon administration funded this break in - this is illegal


• Nixon participated in the conspiracy that supported these break-ins - this is illegal

How do people now come out and say that Mark Felt aka Deep Throat was anything but honorable in helping reveal this illegal behavior? I don't care if his motives were that he was pissed that he got passed over, or if he was worried that the vast army controlled by Sonny and Cher were amassing to take over the world, he did what should have been done in the situation and made sure the law was enforced (no matter how round-about his methods).

Yesterday, I got into a fairly heated discussion about Elliot Spitzer and the mutual fund late trading/market timing issue. For the interested, this is a fairly decent NPR round up of market timing.

Here is a round up of a sample story (not prosecuted by Eliot Spitzer but by the U.S. Attorney Carlos Castillo)

In count 28 of the Second Superseding Indictment, Sharma, Wadhwa, Geek Securities, and Geek Advisors are alleged to have conspired in a mutual fund trading scheme to make money by engaging in mutual fund "market timing" and "late trading" from 2001 until late 2003, in violation of Title 15, United States Code, Sections 78j(b) and 78ff(a), Title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 240.10b-5, and Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. These defendants are alleged to have conspired to make money trading shares of various mutual funds by [...] circumventing mutual fund rules in order to engage in prohibited mutual fund "market timing" and "late trading." [...] "Late trading" refers to the practice of placing orders to buy or sell mutual fund shares after the close of the market at 4:00 p.m. EST, but paying the price as of the 4:00 p.m. EST close. "Late trading" typically enables the trader to gain an advantage by capitalizing on news and information that occurs after 4:00 p.m. Otherwise put, the late trader profits from market events that occur after the 4:00 p.m. EST market close, but that are not reflected in that day's closing price.

According to the NPR story, the average household has $75,000 in mutual funds and lost about $40 a year to this scam. 95 million households own mutual funds, I don't know what percentage of them specifically ran into this problem. All in all, a total of $4-5 billion a year lost to "late trading" and "market timing".

Again, I hate to be glib, but the facts seem pretty straight forward:

• Average citizen is restricted to trading based on published prices and during open hours


• The mutual fund advisors permitted a limited group of people to trade in ways that broke these rules


• The people who allowed this should go to jail.

My girlfriend's brother in law says that confidence was lost in the market (by the average investor) as well as the amount of damage to an average investor was so small that it did not deserve the publicity that this received. I'll cede BOTH those points, but that doesn't make Eliot Spitzer wrong. People broke the law, they stole money by breaking the rules and they should pay the penalty and go to jail. I don't care if Eliot Spitzer's motives were that he wanted to run for president or see how many times his name could get mentioned on the radio. He enforced the law to create a fair and balanced marketplace. I'm not sure how there's another side to this discussion.

While on my recent trip, I got in a cab in downtown Atlanta. Interestingly, they have a flat fare rate for everything inside a certain distance of $6. Given how big that downtown is (not very), it doesn't seem like that good a deal to me, but there you go. Outside of that, it's a standard base ($2) plus a set amount per mile. Anyhow, the second I get in, I tell the guy where I'm going and we're off. Because I was traveling downtown to downtown, the guy knows exactly how much it's going to cost ($6). Two-thirds of the way through the ride, the guy turns around to me and says: "I hope you have singles, cause I don't have any." I had a ten and a twenty.

So i tell him that I only have a ten and a twenty and he says nothing. 5-10 minutes later we pull up in front of the place, and I offer to walk over to some other cabs who were nearby and get change. He pulls out a bunch of singles from his pocket and gives me change. What an ass.

The worst isn't even the lying... I wonder what the law says on payment with correct change. Could I have just walked away? I'll tell you one thing of which I'm sure; you know who's responsibility it is to have change? Not fucking mine.

I suppose it's silly of me to get so irritated about this, but it sure seems like he was trying to violate the most basic of business contracts. I don't want to have to think about that when I'm sitting in a cab... if I have enough fare, I've done my part of the bargain. The thought of asking a cab driver if he has enough change every time I get in is beyond annoying to me.

Scoble Under Attack

It looks like it's Scoble vs. the rest of the world... well, the rest of the Mac world anyway. He seems to be holding his own... good for him. I used to be over there, yelling about how MS was the downfall of mankind and ultimately would doom us (IT Pros/americans/humanity/whoever) to a life where mediocrity would be accepted and true creativity would die, blah blah blah. Needless to say I used to be fairly passionate about this stuff (or insane... po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe).

But the fact is I'm not sure either side has really nailed the crux of the situation accurately. Scoble says that MS is innovating... I agree. The tablet _is_ cool... so is the media center, Windows mobile, MS IPTV, and many other things that no _one_ company is doing. And because MS is doing them all, I can check my hotmail through my Windows Mobile phone, and extend my media center through my xbox and so on. On the other side, Mac _has_ done some cool UI stuff. They've done plenty to annoy the shit out of me, but mostly they get it very right. Expose? Awesome! The dock? Fucking worthless! Old Apple menu? Fantastic! New Apple menu? Terrible! Spotlight? Great! Spotlight in the control panels? Neat effect, but doesn't really tell you every thing you need to know (I want to change the resolution, so I type in resolution and it very elegantly highlights what I need, but just the icons... after that, I'm not sure what to do). And so on. Both sides have their points... but both sides are missing big ones as well.

First, even if Longhorn^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Vista copies EVERY aspect of OS X, why is that a bad thing for the average user? As long as MS respects the IP (and licenses or avoids stuff that has been patented), computer users will rejoice. The fact that Apple had it first? Who cares... That, and $3.50, will get you a double tall breve mochachino.

Second, and more importantly, there's an elephant in the room that people cannot seem to grasp. The person who seems to have gotten closest to the mark is this fellow:

I think the easiest response to Scoble's challenge is, "Does Apple make an operating system and applications that aren't the targets of every malware author in the world, malware so burdensome and odious that people will toss their old machines and buy new ones rather than try to fix them?"

It's not good that MS attracts so many malware writers, but the fact that SO many people are developing for it is the power of Windows. Let's say that Vista DOES copy everything about OS X. If you put them side by side, it's not the OS's that will sell the products. The ecosystem of hardware, software and service people make the system work, not the underlying OS or quality thereof. I used to say that a strong ecosystem was unnecessary, that you could browse, use email, write a word document on any platform and that was all you needed. But that kind of stuff only covers about 70% of what people use computers for. The second a user runs into something that she wants to do but cannot because it sits squarely in the 30% realm that is not available on their computer, she is going to be pissed. It's not the OS that makes the difference, it's everything that surrounds the OS that makes it viable.

Further, when you have hundreds and thousands of companies developing hardware and software for your platform, they become your advocates... every sale of their products support your platform even more. Every sale of your OS gives them a bigger market to play in. When you are developing a product, there's just no way that you will ignore 95% of the people out there and remain successful.

Suffice it to say that Apple does good work and, of all their innovations, I think they succeed the most when it comes to hardware (barring the iPod, I've never really understood why it's been so successful... the Rio Carbon seems much more user/human hand friendly to me). But until a dramatic change in the market place occurs, it's MS's true innovations, around making the life of developers and partners as easy as possible, that will carry the day.

D

Sorry, I'm in Atlanta right now, and I'm definitely not getting as good network connectivity as I would like. I'll try to post more when I get some decent connectivity. I haven't disappeared... don't leave me!

D

This is one of the best sets of new blogs I've seen in a while:

Waiter Rant from a real waiter

Cook Rant from a real cook

Clublife from a real bouncer

This is so much better than individual bloggers, like myself, who randomly comment on topics with no more knowledge than anyone else. The nice part about these blogs is that these viewpoints are the inside view, with knowledge that can only be acquired and passed on BY DOING THE JOB. I love it (needless to say subscribed^3).

I'm not sure I could ever replicate this in my current job. I'd love to blog about meetings I have, work I do and other job related "goodness", but it's very difficult to imagine how this won't get me in some sort of trouble, either formally or informally (because people will start hating me). Maybe I'll start up an anonymous blog and go nuts.

[Update] Changed bad grammar and improved clarity of language... bad Dave!

No I'm not going to come out against the Atkins Diet. But I love bread. I mean I LOOOOOOOOOVVE bread. I'd walk around in a bread suit if I could. It's how I judge whether or not a restaurant is any good... the first thing I always try is the bread.

I heard this story on NPR about this most incredible bread maker. It makes me want to buy the hell out of this book (Cherchez le Pain -- the 100 Best Bakeries in Paris). It's such a subtle art... I don't know why more people in America don't get it. The most disgusting bread? The white, super dense, soft crust crap they serve and call it a "baguette". The best? HARD crust, chewy, sour, moist to the point you think it's been sprinkled with water. Oh man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

D

Post Mortems (in IT)

Man am I a huge fan of the post mortem. How the hell do you attempt to avoid making the same mistake twice if you don't identify it the first time? I know why people are reluctant to do them... it's very tough to avoid blaming people, but trust me, you and your org are better for it.

D

Slo-mo in Software

This is pretty cool... i love the idea of using software to fill in (extrapolate) data where there is less than perfect sampling. But all the same, I'd also love it if they came out with a super hi-speed and/or super zoom camera for cheap. Back in my short experience with professional camera and/or astronomy equipment, I became enamoured of the incredibly cool feeling of slow motion and long distance zoom, especially for star gazing. It's just one of those things you have to see to really grasp... like how cool it looks when you can zoom in on the rings of Saturn, or watch a sugar cube disolve in 20x magnification. The problem, of course, is that it all costs so much money... I wish there was a way to cheapen that stuff up.

D

Everytime I'm in Vegas, I walk down the street and see hundreds of hooker pamphlets covering the street. The thing that I'm always surprised about is how really really good looking the women in the shots are. I know there's a lot one can do with the air brushing and what not but some of them just look too, what's the word, non-selling-their-sex-for-money-ish. But check this (via Defamer)...

Vegas Handbill...

Picture of Elisha Cuthbert from who-knows-where...

Too funny. I don't know why I'm surprised in the least that a pictures in the handbill would have nothing to do with those that work there. As to Ms. Cuthbert, in her defense, I'm sure she would never reduce herself to hooking on the street [well, 90% sure anyway].

I'm not sure who dressed her for that photo shoot but one look at those pictures and you knew something like this was going to happen. Here's a little bit nicer one of her (for no particular reason).

Caesar Quote:

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

I heard this today on NPR on the Poet Minute (or some such). It KIND of sounds true... but Google (or to a lesser extent, MSN) people, Google!

It's a total fabrication. My question is where did Garrison Keillor get the quote? Did he really get it in email and decide to read it on the air? Jeez.