What's killing print?

The popular notion is that the internet is killing print. I beg to differ.

Sure, the internet has undoubtedly become de facto source of information for many of us, but it was not the internet that started the trend to kill print. What really began to kill print off was the growing disparity between income and cost of living.

To illustrate this trend, I compiled the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics with Per Capita Income published by the Census Bureau, and placed them together in the chart below. Stacking them together (even though one is an index and the other is measured in fixed 2008 dollars), you can see how per capita income has not kept up with prices, and the gap has continued through up and down economic cycles.

I propose that, because costs have exceeded income growth, Americans have been forced to choose between paying for print or for other goods and services. With the advent of the internet and the acceleration of the migration of media to the internet, most people have chosen to cut their subscriptions to print in order to maintain their connectivity to the internet. You might still say that this is all semantics - since ultimately the internet is involved with print's decline - but understanding the root of the problem helps to discern that raising prices for subscriptions and charging for access of content online simply won't work. Certainly by raising prices and charging for content there will be a temporary increase in print income, but so long as that gap between the CPI and per capita income exists, people will have to continue to choose the cheapest option, and that cheapest option.

Not even e-print will make up for the loss of income from newsprint. I had once thought that diversity was the answer, but if you're charging the same amount (or more) for that e-print edition, it's still a losing proposition as you won't be attracting new eyes, but instead, you're only asking existing paying customers to migrate from print to e-print. How do I know this? Because of the phenomenon of people dropping their landlines for cell-only service; because of the migration of people choosing free streaming music or single MP3 purchases instead of CDs; because of the demise of Blockbuster and DVD sales while Netflix thrives. When you have more money than you know what to do with, these duplicate and overlapping services have little impact, but for the rest of us, we tend to cut one off - the least flexible and useful.

I have had ideas about how to solve the print problem, but that's for another post and another day.

Miracle on Ice 2.0?

An American goal in the waning seconds of the game against favored home team Canada has Americans going crazy and Canadians frowning, as the Olympic men's gold medal hockey game goes into overtime. The Canadian women may have beaten the American women in hockey, but because this is the last event of the 2010 Olympics, everyone will remember the outcome of this game.

Sudden death overtime.

Down 0 - 2 in the middle of the game, you could see the tension on the faces of the American players. Now, after scoring their second goal to send the game into overtime, it comes down to just one goal, the first goal, the one that wins it all, and a potential second upset by the Americans over their Canadian rivals.

Toyota versus Ford...is there a bias in treatment?

Curious, I think.

250+/- deaths and 700+/- injuries from 3000+/- rollover and tire blowouts from 3.25 million Ford Explorers / Firestone tires over a decade.

56+/- deaths in over 20 years in Toyota vehicles regarding sudden acceleration and braking problems, currently involving over 8 million vehicles in a recall.

Why did the NHTSA turn down a request to investigate Ford back in 2001 and in 2006, but today they're all over Toyota? Back in 2001, accusations were flying that Ford was covering up their knowledge of the tire pressure conflict.

Is there a double-standard being applied here?

Olympic medal count.

With today's combined bobsled gold medal, the US has tied the all-time record of 36 medals (Germany, Salt Lake City 2002), and since we know US Men's Hockey plays tomorrow for the gold/silver, the US is guaranteed to break Germany's record. BUT, the US dropped off on the gold medal collection, and can do no better than tie for second place, which in the rest of the world, apparently they only count gold medals to determine who performed best at the Olympics. In this regard, Canada's push to 'own the podium' push has succeeded very well, garnering 13 gold medals. And even if they only get a total of 26 medals, it's still a huge bump up for Canada. I think Canada did well for themselves. It looks like Norway is the biggest loser, so to speak.

The Tsunami in Hawaii...

You can watch live feed:
1. http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/category.asp?C=176904&nav=menu55_1_1
2. http://www.khon2.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=3299&navCatId=4
3. http://www.kitv.com/video/22691778/index.html

Update

1:38 West Coast - water is pulling out really fast in Hilo Bay.
1:40 - Water rushing in, but no big wave.
1:48 - Water rushing back out again.
1:58 - Hilo Bay the water had been rushing in and out, but NOW it is just crazy how fast and how much it's rushing out. This could be the big one coming right now.
2:05 - Coming back in again, but not the big one. It's going in and out, getting more pronounced each time. Now it's going back out again, each time you can see the white water rushing out faster.
2:06 - Forgot to mention, they chose to avoid the same evacuation problems in Waikiki, by having people stay off the beach/streets, and stay in their hotel, presumably above the 3rd floor. Not many places in the world have them, but in Hawaii, they are completely blanketed with huge siren alarms. When they blow, it can be really freaky.
2:19 - Still going on with in and out rushing water. Some guy was wading around in the water in Waikiki, in front of the beach wall...crazy guy. Now, Oahu is seeing widespread rapid water changes, includng the rushing waters of the Ala Wai Canal; that's weird to see the Ala Wai moving so fast.
2:54 - Looks like that the 4~6' waves were about it, the largest and most dramatic was in Hilo Bay. On O'ahu, it looks to have only been about 2' high, and on Kauai, it's about a foot.
2:58 - Big whoops! Waters receding rapidly once again in Hilo Bay. Might be going on for a long time.
3:12 - Officially, Hilo was 2.8', Kahului was 3.2', Barbers Point was 0.6'. I'm hoping they post a time-lapse of Hilo Bay to show the big changes. Different parts of the islands had exposed reefs below low tide, and other areas were barely affected.

President Obama's health care open meeting.

Talk about guiding the sheep to the slaughter...the Republicans had no idea how badly they were going to get their rhetoric sliced and diced. I've been listening / watching about half of the entire meeting, streaming online, and every time Republicans have come up with rhetorical arguments about ways to change the Democrats' plans, the Democrats have absolutely torn them apart.

McCain tried to bring up malpractice lawsuits, but he was shot down by the President and Dick Durbin, who pointed out that the CBO showed that their proposal would save less than one-half of one percent in spending, a year, and Henry Waxman pointed out that lawsuit limits hadn't saved California from the current Anthem Blue Cross 39% proposed increase this year.

The Republicans tried to attack the growth of public medical care (Medicaid and Medicare), only to be shot down when asked why they didn't have that same priority in mind when they passed their Medicare drug benefit, to the tune of $8 trillion, back in 2003.

They tried to show how American health care is the best in the world by explaining how Canadian politicians would choose to come down to the US for treatment, only to have it pointed out that the average American doesn't earn the money that politicians and sheiks make, that allow them to choose to go to the Mayo clinic.

In pushing the Republican plan, the Democrats would note that there was a 27 million people coverage gap between the two plans, and that costs wouldn't be changed under the Republican plan.

It's clear when you listen to the two sides talk, the Democrats would like to outlaw pre-existing conditions from health care exclusions, while the Republicans would rather let these high risk, high cost individuals to pool together to get lower prices. The Democrats would spread risk across the board (which was supposed to be the point of health care insurance) while the Republicans would generally preserve the existing system, allowing the desegregation of health care by risk.

Watching Ron Wyden speak, you could see how even Republicans were paying attention to when he spoke. Even though he's a strong liberal, he's got a bi-partisan streak within him, and you can see that he's taking his own party to task, specifically on interstate shopping for plans (allows you to shop across the state border for health care plans).

I thought that the Republicans might win the war on words since they had done so well in the media, but the Republicans look absolutely uncomfortable when confronted with their rhetoric. Face to face, every time they tried to push their own agenda, they were shot down by numbers. They tried to bring their stories from their constituents to push their agenda, only to have to listen to Democrats bring their own constituents' stories.

Crazy that the Republicans tried to complain about not having these hearings before, only to see their getting slaughtered in it. They had the biggest opportunity to push Democrat Ron Wyden's bipartisan Healthy Americans Act, and didn't take it up; that was their only chance to seize the platform of change, and they blew it. Why so inept?

More! coaster ideas.

Variant of the first design.



Completely different track on this one; probably too tall, but I needed to start from a fresh point to develop a different option. This one would be a bit pricey, probably $10 to manufacture each piece, which means it would have to sell for $15 each...kinda high. Am going to work on this one more, and make it shorter and come up with variations.

Autocad 2011 makes an appearance...

In Japan, that is.

Roughly translated with Google Translate:

"Autodesk February 19, 2010, CAD software new version of "AutoCAD 2011" "AutoCAD LT 2011" was released. Enhanced drawing capabilities both enhance user efficiency. 3D design capabilities of AutoCAD 2011 with the features of the object to model the free surface (surface modeling) and with. Windows 7 also supports the 64 bit versions. March 19 to begin shipping Sun.

AutoCAD is a 2D/3D, AutoCAD LT is a 2D CAD software. Products that are common to both 2D features of the drawing, "that enhance the user based on the wish list of the Committee" (Takahiro Shimizu's company). For example, where only the ability to display readability in the current design. From the drawings, and selected objects, only objects similar displays that you can edit it. Improved features of the hatching and fill particular places become available, such as place a transparent process to fill. AutoCAD is also about to set and automatically infer the location of the shape of the multiple relationships soft "constraints guess" that add features.

Surface modeling capabilities of AutoCAD was like surface can design complex shapes freely. 3D coordinate data derived from large amounts of laser surveying equipment (groups data points) can also load.

AutoCAD 2011 price is ¥ 614,250, AutoCAD LT 2011 is ¥ 199,500. AutoCAD LT 2011, the service pack is bundled with the maintenance of ¥ 232,050 a year contract."

Of course, good luck finding any information about the US release. I did find that books for Autocad 2011 and LT 2011 won't be coming out until June, but that doesn't mean the software won't be here sooner. Product refresh for Autodesk has occurred in March, so I would expect the same to hold true this year.

Started work on designs for coasters.

Trying to minimize material waste and total cost, so the size and layout is a bit tight. Did some quick (relatively speaking) renderings; I could sit on it longer and the image would improve quite a bit, but I'm losing patience. Will sit on it for a bit and revisit design later to see if I still like it.

Trying not to compromise, and setting no deadlines so that I can find exactly what I like and get things to where I want them to be. It's not the same as designing interiors and buildings, as they take far more time and you tend to have less control.

Objective journalism of American politics, or a serious lack thereof.

I especially love BoingBoing for the diversity of topics covered in its blog, but this particular entry hits a particular sore spot for me: the lack of objective journalism in American politics, or as I like to term it, "journalistic media as a mouthpiece for political loudmouths."

If you've watched the news on television or have read the newspaper, you've been exposed to it. But like cancer, it grows on you until it may be too late to recover from its disease; some people in fact, never recognize the dearth of objectiveness in journalism, accepting as truth, what is spoken or printed.

The internet is the medium to solve this problem; the democratization of the expression of thought means that smart people will analyze and reorganize the crap that comes out from mainstream media.

I heard there was Global Cooling.

Or so the East Coast Conservative pundits would like us to believe. However in Portland Oregon, we've got Warming; 10 degrees above normal and flowers coming out a month ahead of schedule.

From SketchUp to final image.

I thought I'd post this image of my 3D SketchUp model, as exported directly from SketchUp, to illustrate how many more steps are required to turn a 3D model into a usable, marketable rendering.

As you can see, the modeling is merely one small step in the whole process, particularly for interior shots where you need lighting. SketchUp doesn't do lights except for the Sun, so unless you've got big windows and lots of them, you're not going to be very happy with outputs directly from SketchUp of interior views.
The final step in the process, is to work the image in Photoshop, to dodge/burn areas, and place additional vignette blurring - if desired - to add a touch of the toy camera look to images...stylize the image to bring some additional eye candy.

Went into a compulsive ADHD zone for 36 hours...

And created a ground floor office floor plate, complete with minute details of the hallway and lobby areas in sketchup, just to play around with a ceiling idea that popped into my head. I played around with the materials, rendered several angles, and finished it off in photoshop.

Not that you needed to be reminded...

But Vancouver is host to the 2010 Winter Olympics AND a widespread bedbug infestation. Here's a question: have these people thought to caulk the gaps between their baseboards and floors, and installing a door bottom on their entry doors?

Google Street Maps oddity.

Walk around at 1125 SE Division in Portland, OR , and every other view of the building on the corner changes. It was in renovation being converted from an open warehouse into creative spaces, and for whatever reason, Google's Street View service chose to mesh in two separate drive-by recorded views, separated by potentially 6 months. Even the trees are different; you can see the difference between Summer and Winter.

Olympic bed bugs.

The Olympic torch had a bit of a problem in the Vancouver Winter Olympics opening ceremony, but the bed bugs don't seem to care. Overheard in some private condos in Vancouver where Olypmic skiers were staying,"Mmm...Olympic athlete blood...tasty."

Ruh roh...TSA employees to get "secret" clearance?

According to a report in USA Today, 10,000 TSA employees will be getting clearances to "secret" national intelligence over the next few years. Now, while they're all higher-level employees (20% total of all TSA), it's still troubling to think that 10,000 people will have access to secret intelligence, and here's why: we already know from the TSA's own blog that some of their employees have engaged in theft of travelers' properties including laptops, all other sorts of expensive electronic goods as well as jewelry not just in check-in luggage. You think that's just in Miami, Newark and JFK? Think again; Los Angeles leads the nation in stolen goods. Even those items that were confiscated at the security check points were stolen and sold on places like eBay (these are kept by the TSA and sold via bidding on eBay where proceeds return to the government, or thrown away).

But wait, consider that, by 2008, over 50% of TSA employees had either quit or were fired in the 6 years since the TSA was created.

Bad idea, I say. This is definitely not going to end well.

Youtube test of your internet speed.

This is kinda cool. It compares your own internet access speed to that of your ISP, your city, state, country and the world, via streaming videos you (and everyone else) watch on Youtube. Depending on how you're set up, I can imagine that your figures may be skewed if you don't have a fixed IP or if you're not signed into Google/Youtube service, which would technically make it difficult to pin your personal speed down except for that moment that you're on Youtube.

NCAA secondary violations, and the BS chatter.

I found this little gem. Apparently since 2000, Ohio State has had 375 secondary violations, Oklahoma 224 and Florida 112. I find this interesting, because of the national media's hype on Lane Kiffin and Tennessee's 6 recruiting violations in 2009. In comparison, Ohio State averages 40 violations a year.

It's not a perfect smoking gun to convict the NCAA of a double standard - for their announcement of investigating Tennessee for a string of secondary violations (those 6 from 2009) - but it's most definitely eye-popping, and it should bring perspective to this criticism of Kiffin. Unfortunately, it's clear that many journalists would rather shoot from their mouths without first checking their facts.

Gigabit internet?

Google announced plans to install a gigabit fiber to the home (FTTH) internet in select communities, up to a total of 500,000 people. Think about that...you could essentially work from home at the same network speeds as the gigabit ethernet at work; in many cases, it would be faster, as some workplace networks still operate at the 100 megabit speed.

They're asking governments and people to nominate and explain why they should pick their city to install FTTH.

Very exciting news; more exciting than yesterday's announcement of Google Buzz, I think.

Are you a sellout?

I don't know if that question is pertinent by today's standards, but when I was growing up as a Gen-Xer, selling out was akin to selling your soul.

These days, high school and college grads are feeling the pain of the most devastating recession since the Great Depression, but all things are relative. Back when I was in college, we had to deal with the possibility of the military draft being reinstated if the Gulf War had not gone exactly as hoped. When we graduated, we were already in a recession, and the recovery was yet another bleak one that took several years. In the process, the sinking reality was that our prosperity would never match that of the previous two generations (the post-war and baby boomer), as the great economic expansion was already slowing down. In no short reason, the rise of China coincided with the slowdown of the American Dream.

Today I look around, and I see two classes of people: those who believe that life is itself its own reward, and those who are obsessed with money and finding more of it.

I fit within the former; I do not chase money; if it finds me, it's serendipity. I have struggled with this idea of selling out all my life.

To this end, I think most of my decisions, likes and dislikes fit within this framework. Winona Ryder is my (fake but heartfelt) love. Her choice between selling out (or selling yourself short) or sticking with the idealistic but morally incorruptible life in the movie Reality Bites, echoes the choices we all face.

Mom: "Why don't you get a job at the Burgerrama? They'll hire you! My Lord, I saw on the TV - they had this little retarded boy working the register."
Daughter: "Because I'm not retarded, mom. I was the valedictorian of my university."
Dad: "Well you dont have to put that on your application."

Apple doesn't like Android.

It appears that Apple has taken to censoring apps in its market, that make reference to Android.

via Techtree

Example of Microsoft Security Essentials' strengths

Unlike BitDefender, McAfee stand alone and Kaspersky among others, MSE caught a particular trojan virus that was used in an email spoof directed towards .mil and .gov addresses.
via Krebs on Security

Bird poop.

Yes, as I discovered, even Google Street View has bird poop. Unfortunately in this case, the poop is on the lens' spherical cover, and this person contracted out to drive around Los Angeles, is either unaware or doesn't care about it.

Health care isn't cheap.

This story in the LA Times reminds me of why the for-profit health care system we have in the United States remains a laughable situation, especially for individuals buying insurance. Nothing - except that in a controlled monopoly such as oil under OPEC's control - goes up 30+% in price in a year, for two years in a row; that's unheard of increases.

So I thought I'd apply double 30% increases to some different goods and services to put this into perspective using BLS's December 2009 Consumer Price Index:

Comparison of prices

Item	Dec 2009	Dec 2011
1 pound ground beef	$2.06	$3.48
1 pound sliced bacon	$3.50	$5.92
1 pound whole chicken	$1.27	$2.15
1 dozen grade A large eggs	$1.70	$2.87
1 gallon whole milk	$3.04	$5.14
1 pound cheddar cheese	$4.42	$7.47
1 pound red delicious apples	$1.16	$1.96
1 pound cabbage	$0.57	$0.96
1 pound grapefruit	$1.03	$1.74
16 ounce potato chips	$4.53	$7.66
1/2 gallon ice cream	$4.43	$7.49
1 pound creamy peanut butter	$2.09	$3.53
Average US electricity bill	$65.02	$109.88
1 gallon gasoline	$2.70	$4.56

I wish pay would out-pace cost of living, but even a 30% annual increase would be crazy. Personally, I think Anthem Blue Cross' increases are indicative of a system that is broken.

It's too bad Republicans didn't back Senator Ron Wyden's (D-Oregon) bi-partisan Healthy Americans Act, and it's sad that Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) won't let it out of committee. Take a look at the explanation of the bill at Wikipedia (which includes the CBO's conclusion that it was budget-neutral) and the reporting of it by the Kaiser Foundation (including an excerpt from then-CBO director Peter Orzag) and the summary provided by Senator Ron Wyden.

If that's not enough for you, read think tank Brookings Institution's take on Wyden's proposal. But perhaps the most provocative review, from the Lewin Group (funded by United Health Care) which was highly critical of the current legislation coming from Max Baucus and other Democrats, finds that Ron Wyden's proposal would actually lower Americans' health care spending.

With the election of a Republican senator from Massachusetts, maybe it's time for Americans on both sides of the aisle to push Congress to embrace the bi-partisan Healthy Americans Act?

A political reminder.

It's okay for Republicans to spend your money to expand Government, but if the Democrats do it to stabilize the freefalling economy, it's a bad thing.

"This debt is being piled on the backs of our kids and grandkids with no relief in sight." - House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio (source: USA Today)

Six years ago, "it was standard practice not to pay for things." - Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (source: USA Today)

The hypocrisy is astounding; that the majority of Americans are easily fooled, is scary.

Dennis Dodd, bad journalism?

I thought that CBS Sports had decent journalists, but what Dennis Dodd wrote today seems grossly unprofessional.

Dennis Dodd, a senior writer at CBSsports.com - an official partner of the NCAA no less - should have known better, when in an article today, called USC football coach Lane Kiffin a "Most Valuable Pimp."

CBS Sports, is that's how it's going to be, from now on?

"With the droolfest known as national signing day upon us, Lane Kiffin established himself as this year's recruiting MVP -- Most Valuable Pimp. That's the most literal way to put it. Kiffin hit the streets to become this silly season's most prolific collector of talent."

Where I come from, someone who is a "prolific collector of talent", is usually called a great recruiter. In Dodd's (and CBS Sports') world, I guess he's a pimp. Maybe it's me, but I think Dodd got the analogy wrong, at best.

I hate it when people post shortened URLs.

What fool would click on them?

There's no way to tell where that URL will take you. For all you know, that link may end up sending you to a compromised site that is hosting a script that installs a virus on your computer, or fools you into clicking on a javascript button that you thought was supposed to close your browser window. Even if you have an antivirus program installed, not a single antivirus has been shown to be 100% effective, and viruses pop up just as fast as the antivirus companies are able to respond to them.

You're assuming a lot of risk by clicking on a shortened URL. Unlike an HTML Anchor tag, you can't hover over the link and find out where it's actually going to. And seriously, why do people create the 200 character web page URL anyway?

I'm totally peeved that people would actually post shortened URLs these days. It's like someone's daring you to click on it to see if there's a virus on the other end. Arrrghhhh!!! STOP USING BIT.LY!!!