Supply side economics test.

According to an LA Times story:

"Steve Pierce(R), majority (Arizona) Senate whip, said the state may be able to come up with ways to raise money -- by cutting taxes. He said that cuts in business taxes may raise tax revenues, an argument made by believers in supply-side economics, a theory that most economists say is flawed."

I think this is swell; we might finally get to test the idea of whether or not supply-side economics work. Of course, I'm quite sure it doesn't work, in so far that it takes a very long time for the money to trickle down, and for value to be added to goods that are created by these new jobs, if at all. In reality, what would happen is that small businesses would either use that money to pay down debt that they've been accumulating to maintain payrolls or invest in hardware to increase efficiency of their existing workforce, or maybe post a profit. Who really knows what these people will do with the tax return they'd get, but I do know that they won't hire new people until they're sure that the economy is on a solid growth path.

Of course, news broke on Thanksgiving - belated happy thanksgiving - that Dubai World requested a 6 month hold on repayment of a $60B debt, which has triggered shock throughout the entire global financial system, as investors are worried about their money. Because of the terse request by Dubai World, investors are left to guess as to how serious of an issue this could be, and people are fleeing stocks for the good ol' USofA Treasury Bonds. Point is, if this situation is as dire as indicated by the request for a 6 month reprieve (hey, can I stop paying my mortgage for 6 months?), banks are about to be steamrolled once again, and we could see the collapse of many large investment firms.

I mention this Dubai World problem, because if the worst case scenario comes true, the supply-side test could spell complete disaster for Arizona, and a quick double-dip of the world and US economies. Look for the ensuing Conservative criticism, even though it was their lack of market controls that would have triggered this second dip.

Street view in Hawaii.

Was reading a story about a house fire in Honolulu, and was curious to see where it was, since the story published the address. You can see the house in the lower left corner of the picture...brought to you by Google's Street View. Lovely view of Diamond Head. I can imagine how nice it must be to have that view every day. Wish I had that.

Too bad for the house, obviously...but the house itself seems halfway to being reclaimed by nature, being so dilapidated. Unfortunate that the occupants were injured, but at least no one died, and they rescued the dog.

T-Mobile running 7.2Mbps HSDPA

I noticed this morning, a big speed bump when using my G1 to read emails and look through rss feeds, so I checked my speed. It turns out, in the Portland area, T-Mobile has bumped up speeds - as was expected - to 7.2 megabits per second, which in real world observations, is closer to 3 megabits per second actual download.

And late next year, T-Mobile is said to be updating to 21Mbps HSPA+, which will give even more bang for the buck.

Make your own QR Code.

See below.

So what do you do with a QR code? Well, for one, you can create URL links or other things. And I found a cool site that generates a png image file of whatever corresponding info you want.

Isn't that the neatest? Put it on your business card, and the people can merely use their smart phone to scan the barcode and follow the link...no more typing in text into your browser, right? Heck, your business card can be completely minimalist, and just have a series of these QR codes filled with your phone number, business address and website. Crazy, eh?

Excessive or appropriate use of force?

What do you think? A 12 year old girl is seen striking an officer in the process of resisting arrest.

I see a police officer, instead of helping his fellow officer wrestle this girl down, lets him handle her while he searches for an opportunity to shoot her. At the point that she's on the ground and still struggling, he shoots her close range - you can see the beanbag bounce off her and travel 7 feet towards the Max car.

It so happens, the officer firing the beanbag at this girl, was also involved in the arrest and subsequently resulting death of a homeless man.

Once you strike an officer, all bets are off; you've allowed the officer to escalate force. But, the question remains, is it appropriate to use a beanbag up close on a 12 year old girl, even if she strikes an officer? Of course, he doesn't know that she's 12 years old, but it bothers me that he walks around after she's on the ground, looking for the right opportunity to shoot her. I'm not sure he needed to use the beanbag shot to subdue her, especially since she was already on the ground. But at least he didn't shoot her in the chest or abdomen.

Working on a table design.

I wish I had a shop to build stuff; I don't, and it sucks balls. Instead, I design and render, instead of build. I suppose I could build test models from foam core, but it's quite nice to be able to quickly switch colors and re-render, and so on. Ah...whatever. I need to translate this to a 2D layout and itemize to see how much it'll cost to have cut (the wood) at Ponoko, and so on...I fear it'll cost $350 to build. :O

If I could build it myself, it wouldn't cost me anything but the cost of materials, and I could do my own sheet metal bending and trimming, drilling, etc. Only thing I'm not gonna do...cutting, laminating and sanding glass; that's nasty stuff.

Even more Fall images and an old girlfriend.

This one this past weekend on Front Ave near the Fremont Bridge. London Plane Tree, if you're curious.

Monday, ventured out to Smith & Bybee Lakes to do a short exploration. Willows all around.

Photo of Smith Lake, looking towards the West Hills.

I couldn't help but get these colors together...green lamp post with Fall color trees and a clear blue sky; it just seemed to fit.

Found an old girlfriend (over 15 years) online. Married with two kids. Strange isn't it? People end up posting all sort of information about themselves online, and with Google, everything is discoverable...even me. Of course, she being married, it took a little digging to find her, but she's alive and well in the ether...we all are in the ether - cue to Lain. I love Lain; I have the entire DVD collection.

She looks happy, which makes me happy (really). I'm certain that I would have never provided her that sort of support and family that she wanted (even if at the time I thought that I could), and I doubt she would have been nearly as happy as she looks in her photos. I wouldn't ever want to affect her current happy life, so I'm just never going to visit her...I wouldn't know what to say anyway..."Sorry I screwed up, glad you're happy?" Just seems like a selfish act to disrupt someone's life, when the last time you saw them life was falling apart and happiness escaped this existence. And it would be unfair to her husband too, I'm sure.

Michael Steele, Populist.

"It's not about the change we need; it's about the change we want." - Michael Steele.

The head Republican is suggesting that the GOP is populist and has no backbone to do what is necessary to make the nation stronger. Imagine that; he just conceded that the GOP doesn't care about the future at all.

Just last week, FOX News offered an opinion piece, "Obamanomics Is Not the 'Change' We Need."

Can it be that the Republican Party is selling their soul for the sake of political gain? This is nothing close to the Gingrich Revolution that promised a series of reform-minded goals; this is just a sell out of getting solutions passed, just to regain power.

This is awesome!

As the economy recovers and bills get passed without their help, the Republicans will have given Democrats and moderates the opportunity to attack the GOP for a lack of substance.

Can I call the Palm Pre / WebOS a failure yet?

It's perhaps premature, but I couldn't help but notice that ComScore reported that the Treo represented 6.5% of the mobile touchscreen market, but the Pre was nonexistent for the 3 months ending August 2009. At the same time, Palm's last quarter statement showed that they shipped under 850K handsets. We already know the priced dropped by 25% less than 4 months into sales, which leads me to believe that the Pre is underwhelming. Mind you, the G1 had a 7.5 month head start on the Pre, but the Android G1 phone alone has already captured 3.6% of the mobile touchscreen market share.

More proof of Pre's failures can be seen at Sprint's own website, where CNET editor ratings are shown alongside customer's ratings:

Palm Pre
CNET Editor rating: 3.5 stars
Customer rating: 3.8 stars

Samsung Moment (Android)

CNET Editor rating: 3.5 stars
Customer rating: 4.5 stars

HTC Hero (Android)

CNET Editor rating: 4.0 stars
Customer rating: 4.6 stars

It's like I've been saying all along: Motorola made the right choice to go with Android and Palm made a bad choice to go proprietary with WebOS. With Motorola's Droid going on retail on Verizon this week, the Android platform is about to get a huge boost, and Motorola appears to be on the winning side.