http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/
It reminds me of the proverbial candidate for class president who promises CocaCola in the water fountains.
The list of expensive stuff he wants to do is only offset by his increases in taxes that will shrink the economy. He hasn't mentioned a single program that he wants to stop, just programs he wants to start and expand.
Tuesday, August 26
Monday, August 18
Philosophy of Liberty
This was posted 2 years ago, and I just now found it. I have now seen it 3 times, examining it closely for any idea that I even in part disagree with. The only point I have found is a minor one that can wait until you've seen the clip.
Back to that point, When the author says that people should stop asking their governments to initiate force on their behalf, it assumes democratic governments. Dictators pursue ownership of the life and liberty of their subjects as an objective for their own life. And may cause global atrocities without the deliberate consent of their people.
Back to that point, When the author says that people should stop asking their governments to initiate force on their behalf, it assumes democratic governments. Dictators pursue ownership of the life and liberty of their subjects as an objective for their own life. And may cause global atrocities without the deliberate consent of their people.
Wednesday, July 9
Information Overload: A Blessed Curse
What is so bad about information overload?
How the Google generation thinks differently.
The first article specifically talks about the advent of email deluge. How the flood of email from colleagues and clients can get far too powerful to feasibly answer or even read.
The second article is by a mom who doesn't understand why her son does 5 entertaining things while researching a report for his science class. The author distills these characteristics in regards to Google infopath adoption.
How the Google generation thinks differently.
The first article specifically talks about the advent of email deluge. How the flood of email from colleagues and clients can get far too powerful to feasibly answer or even read.
The second article is by a mom who doesn't understand why her son does 5 entertaining things while researching a report for his science class. The author distills these characteristics in regards to Google infopath adoption.
NATIVES v IMMIGRANTS
Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”.Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.
Monday, June 30
Rudy Giuliani Defines Freedom
Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.Compare that to:
-Rudy Giuliani
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
-Abraham Lincoln
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
-Mahatma Ghandi
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
-Dwight Eisenhower
Wednesday, May 7
Food Crisis
I found some great commentaries here on the recent rise in food prices.
American Thinker | Financial Times: Economists Forum | New York Times: A Global Need...
Things to think about while listening to the news on the Food Crisis:
Since Gasoline and Biofuels are well on their way to becoming true substitutes, and biofuels are made from food, high oil prices will become directly related to higher food prices. Not only can food substitute for oil, but it apparently works the other way too. I should make a whole blog post just on that.
Wired
India, China, and South America are developing far wealthier populations who consume more of both food and fuel. Driving the demand of both, raising the prices of both.
Those same three regions are also using that wealth to increase their productive capacities. The US utilizes only 0.27% of the world's crop land, but produced 16.8% of all the world's grain in 2007. Which means the US produces grain 80 times more effeciently than the rest of the world, so there's room for 7978% improvement in global grain production without any new technologies. That's about 80 new earths to put that in terms Daniel W. Basse can understand.
I don't have many links to back this up, but it seems that as wealth passes some level, quality begins to take precedence over quantity to the average consumer. High class restaurants serve smaller portions than low class restaurants. Areas with higher average population have more Chipotle's and fewer Taco Bell's. If this is true, then as the West gets still wealthier, it will begin to consume fewer pounds of grain while expending far more in terms of other wealth to get it. That might relax demand for low priced grains for poorer areas.
American Thinker | Financial Times: Economists Forum | New York Times: A Global Need...
Things to think about while listening to the news on the Food Crisis:
Since Gasoline and Biofuels are well on their way to becoming true substitutes, and biofuels are made from food, high oil prices will become directly related to higher food prices. Not only can food substitute for oil, but it apparently works the other way too. I should make a whole blog post just on that.
Wired
India, China, and South America are developing far wealthier populations who consume more of both food and fuel. Driving the demand of both, raising the prices of both.
Those same three regions are also using that wealth to increase their productive capacities. The US utilizes only 0.27% of the world's crop land, but produced 16.8% of all the world's grain in 2007. Which means the US produces grain 80 times more effeciently than the rest of the world, so there's room for 7978% improvement in global grain production without any new technologies. That's about 80 new earths to put that in terms Daniel W. Basse can understand.
I don't have many links to back this up, but it seems that as wealth passes some level, quality begins to take precedence over quantity to the average consumer. High class restaurants serve smaller portions than low class restaurants. Areas with higher average population have more Chipotle's and fewer Taco Bell's. If this is true, then as the West gets still wealthier, it will begin to consume fewer pounds of grain while expending far more in terms of other wealth to get it. That might relax demand for low priced grains for poorer areas.
Friday, April 11
'Not for Resale' free stuff
Universal Studios sent out a bunch of free promo CD's with a 'promotional use only' label to selected listeners. These CD's arrived completely free through the mail.
Troy Augusto, who decided to disregard that label and sell the disc on Ebay, is now fighting a lawsuit from Universal. The record company claims that the promotion use label identified the product as in part their property, and that they retained all rights of sale. Augusto claims that since the discs arrived in the mail with no action on his part, they were gifts and therefore his property.
The major significance is the challenges this case could pose for the 'first sale doctrine.' Universal wins, could a car manufacturer place a limit on the number of resales for the car? I could do a whole new post on that idea.
EFF has counter sued Universal on Augusto's behalf.
Troy Augusto, who decided to disregard that label and sell the disc on Ebay, is now fighting a lawsuit from Universal. The record company claims that the promotion use label identified the product as in part their property, and that they retained all rights of sale. Augusto claims that since the discs arrived in the mail with no action on his part, they were gifts and therefore his property.
The major significance is the challenges this case could pose for the 'first sale doctrine.' Universal wins, could a car manufacturer place a limit on the number of resales for the car? I could do a whole new post on that idea.
EFF has counter sued Universal on Augusto's behalf.
Sunday, April 6
Constitution? What Constitution?
Bush administration claimed that the 4th amendment doesn't apply to them.
For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn't apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism.I'm embarrassed to say that I'm rusty enough on the Constitution that I had to look this up.
That view was expressed in a Justice Department legal memo dated Oct. 23, 2001. The administration on Wednesday stressed that it now disavows that view.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
So far this is just an echo chamber post, Hat tip to MRogers @ slashdot. But I can't think of any commentary that won't sound like whining.
Sunday, March 30
Thursday, March 20
The Advent of Generation Why
Quite a bit of research has been done on the workplace integration of Gen-Y.
There are those who say that Gen Y will be good for the workplace:
Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT
Generation Y: They've Arrived at the Workplace with a New Attitude
Gen Y Myths Debunked
There are others who say that Gen Y poses new risks:
Beware a Generation of Risk Takers
Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem?
Generation Y: Too Demanding at Work?
I was born in 1983, which puts me squarely in Generation Y. While I won't speak for others close to my age, I do value entrepreneurship and flexibility in my career. I'm always confused by companies that expect to retain me indefinitely, unless they offer unlimited growth within their ranks in the form of easily expanded higher positions to make room for quality people. A 5% raise with a fancier title in my current position is not a promotion, it is a retainer.
There are those who say that Gen Y will be good for the workplace:
Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT
Generation Y: They've Arrived at the Workplace with a New Attitude
Gen Y Myths Debunked
There are others who say that Gen Y poses new risks:
Beware a Generation of Risk Takers
Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem?
Generation Y: Too Demanding at Work?
I was born in 1983, which puts me squarely in Generation Y. While I won't speak for others close to my age, I do value entrepreneurship and flexibility in my career. I'm always confused by companies that expect to retain me indefinitely, unless they offer unlimited growth within their ranks in the form of easily expanded higher positions to make room for quality people. A 5% raise with a fancier title in my current position is not a promotion, it is a retainer.
Monday, March 17
Clean Energy Gets Cheaper
Business Week: Clean Energy: It's Getting Affordable
Wikipedia: Electricity Market
CBO: Prospects for Distributed Electricity Generation
For the last decades or so, activists and technologists have hoped and worked for a world where cheap clean power improved living conditions all over the world. Not to be melodramatic, Most technological innovation improves living conditions everywhere they're used, freeing resources to improve standards of living everywhere else.
There have been many breakthroughs in the past few years in the forms of 'more efficient' solar cells, that cost more per watt. A power generating floor, and other nifty gadgets that just don't take off. But the real test is in terms of $$$ per Watt. Because it's not really the cleanness that we want, or even the security of knowing that we will have resources for generations to come, but the raw power that keeps us from working in the dark. The environment is important, but it's not how we base our decisions.
One thing I would love our government to actually tackle however, is the legal mess it's already created preventing home owners from selling their own power back to the grid. A good power market should allow this and be transparent enough to permit real time power pricing. So that homeowners can reduce their power consumption when the price gets real high, or feel free to crank up the AC when the price gets real low. If families could MAKE money by selling the power from their solar cell when the price gets high, we might see a much higher adoption rate.
Wikipedia: Electricity Market
CBO: Prospects for Distributed Electricity Generation
For the last decades or so, activists and technologists have hoped and worked for a world where cheap clean power improved living conditions all over the world. Not to be melodramatic, Most technological innovation improves living conditions everywhere they're used, freeing resources to improve standards of living everywhere else.
There have been many breakthroughs in the past few years in the forms of 'more efficient' solar cells, that cost more per watt. A power generating floor, and other nifty gadgets that just don't take off. But the real test is in terms of $$$ per Watt. Because it's not really the cleanness that we want, or even the security of knowing that we will have resources for generations to come, but the raw power that keeps us from working in the dark. The environment is important, but it's not how we base our decisions.
One thing I would love our government to actually tackle however, is the legal mess it's already created preventing home owners from selling their own power back to the grid. A good power market should allow this and be transparent enough to permit real time power pricing. So that homeowners can reduce their power consumption when the price gets real high, or feel free to crank up the AC when the price gets real low. If families could MAKE money by selling the power from their solar cell when the price gets high, we might see a much higher adoption rate.
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