And as expected, Obama and Reid fall for the poison pill.

President Obama presented an agreed-upon "framework" for a "compromise" tonight.  Hell, why did we go through all this rancorous hand-wringing, if all the Democrats would end up doing, is capitulate to Republicans?

You will notice Obama didn't announce some of the finer points of the plan, and I have this fear that they'll try to rush the bill through to a vote without letting Americans know exactly is inside of the bill, other than this "framework" of a poison pill.

And well, you already know what I think of the poison pill: despite the fakery of the Republicans that would object publicly on cutting defense spending, you know that they're assured of a pullout from Afghanistan and Iraq, which serves to automatically cut defense spending -- something the Tea Party Republicans want anyway.  And so Democrats hand Republicans automatic cuts on Medicare, and Republicans can simply sit idly by and / or vote down any bipartisan spending cuts while laughing all the way.

It's poor governance, and it's a continued assault on the elderly, even while rich people get to keep some of the lowest tax rates in the past 100 years.  If Democrats do not show up in 2012 to vote, it's because they're disenchanted with Democratic politicians who sold out their base.

T-Mobile: MyTouch 4G Slide / HTC HD7 WP7 phones.

So I finally made my way to the T-Mobile store to talk with a salesperson and take a look at the HD7 WP7 phone and the MyTouch 4G Slide Android phone.

First, the HTC HD7 phone with WP7 is slick, though it takes some getting used to.  There are a LOT of functions lacking on it that are on Android 2.1+ phones -- this is no exaggeration.  The included NAV software is weak in comparison to Android's Google Maps, and takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to load.  Customization comes down to changing colors and rearranging the tiles on WP7...not anywhere as cool and good as Android.  This idea that tiles are deeply integrated is somewhat true...but not everything is like that.  By comparison, Android widgets are pretty darn close to the functionality of WP7 tiles...so whatever, right?

All in all, it was fine, but just not good enough for me.  Truly, Microsoft is far behind Android and the iPhone in several ways.  I'm sure other people will find it more than acceptable, but the final and most important reason why I'm passing on it, is that I'm all in on the Google / Gmail ecosystem.

Second, the MyTouch 4G Slide is very, super, extra awesome.  But heavy...as in DROID-heavy.  If you've handled a Droid, you know what I mean.  The Samsung Galaxy by comparison, feels lighter, and obviously without a keyboard slider, is much thinner.  But the photo function in the MyTouch 4G Slide is UNREAL!  It identifies faces, it selectively focuses where you want it to, and it has a very smooth zoom built in...barely any wait in shutter time.  The buttons on the keyboard are rectangular and spread out, making one wish they were larger, using up all that empty space in between buttons.  Works well enough for me, though.  Oh, and as I looked at the Khaki colored one, I realized it was probably a bad idea, because I'd get it dirty in no time.

Alas, I didn't come home with one.  I did confirm however, that my super-old subscription plan and price are good to go with the new phone, and I get the same price.  Best part though -- and this is a whopper -- my data plan remains the same, unlimited with zero throttling, but instead of 3G, I get to run on the HSPA+ 4G speeds!  Seriously good news.  So why didn't I buy one?  I dunno...I guess I just like to digest it first.  If I get a new phone before Ice Cream comes out, this one is definitely it.

This poison pill is...poisonous.

Senator Reid and Obama have apparently agreed to a poison pill that would automatically cut spending in Defense and Medicare, if Congress fails to pass spending cuts by end of November.

It's rather unbelievable, and shocking that any Democrat would agree to this.

First, this whole debt ceiling deadline is itself a Republican poison pill, that gives them spending cuts one way or the other.  As I've said many times, Republicans like Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann really don't care where and how the spending cuts are made, but that they are made, and they're perfectly fine with keeping the debt ceiling in place.  Literally, Republicans will be allowed to simply do nothing, and they will have achieved draconian spending cuts.

Second, Republicans are given a pass on responsibility once again.  By talking a good public narrative but doing nothing behind closed doors, they will effectively cut Medicare, and not take the heat for cutting Medicare.  In fact, they will have the capacity to blame Democrats for not agreeing to spending cuts, that triggered the Medicare cuts.

So when did America become the land of sadomasochism?

Raccoons on the waterfront.

I like raccoons -- they are cute little burglars who try to clean their food and their hands before eating, and doggone it, they're funny little fellas with funky voices.  I know homeowners hate em, because they break into trash cans and leave a mess...the very first time I saw one, was on Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills, at night, breaking into trash.

Last Thursday morning I was on the bike early morning (4:30 am) on the Waterfront.  As I turned to go on the lower walkway of the Steel Bridge, in the din I could see what I thought at first was a trio of cats in the distance.  When I got up to about 20 feet, I realized these guys were young raccoons (no mother to be seen -- sad!) scared by this human (me) coming upon them.

They made a critical mistake: they split the narrow walkway, stuck on either side, while trying to cross in front of me.  I had no choice but to slow down as I carefully passed them, so as to not hit them or scare them...they were already freaked out that they were stuck with only two ways to go on the walkway, and that I was coming from one end, and the other end was 200 feet away.

All four of us were staring at each other as I passed them by, and you could see the fear in their little eyes.  Without any sight of their mother, it seemed obvious that she had died and the three were on their own, scared and sticking together...you know, like those old Disney nature films.

The second time around the Waterfront, I didn't see them, so it's fair to say they found their way out, down to the river's edge.  One gets the sense, Portland needs a natural link from Forest Park down to the Willamette River.

The fallacy of a compromise...what they're not telling you.

Headlines on Sunday are widely talking about a possible framework to a deal.

Note, there is no actual deal agreed upon, just a framework.

And what they're not telling you, is that this compromise is only in the Senate, in order to fast track votes by cutting short the normal debate required in order to consider a vote...in other words, they're negotiating to get to 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

That's it.

There is no deal with Republican House leadership, and no way will Tea Party Republicans sign onto this compromise framework.

Then there's the questionable reasoning behind the poison pills written into the Reid bill, that would automatically enact cuts in defense and entitlements.  If you were to believe Republican talking heads, this is the only way to get Democrats to act on spending cuts.  But look at it the opposite side of the coin: Republicans don't have to do a damned thing and they'll win across the board cuts.  And therein lies the problem...Republicans are disingenuous about the poison pill, because they themselves are using the debt ceiling as a poison pill in itself, and have so far not been willing to move to the middle.

I call shenanigans and proof that we're going to be headed down the same rancorous stalemate in November, just before the holiday shopping season kicks off.  Great plan, huh?

Tablets and Richard Marx.

Went to Staples on Saturday, the last day of the $100 off coupon for Android tablets, but came away with nothing -- every store was sold out of them except for one, but all they had were open box Xooms that they were selling for the standard price.  Who'd buy an open box at the regular price, when you don't know what - if anything - was taken?

The way I see it, if they were sold out, it's fate telling me to save my money.  Fun stuff to play with, but really, I've got a netbook, a laptop on the way, a workstation and a backup P4 in the closet that was supposed to be my Sandy Bridge project; I don't have a "need" for another device.

While at the store, I played around with the Blackberry Playbook and the HP WebOS TouchPad.  (Yesterday at Best Buy, I played with the Xoom, the Asus Transformer, the Toshiba Thrive, and the Acer Iconia.)  The Playbook did not excite me that much, but the TouchPad was very nice, and thin.

Playing with the TouchPad, I decided to have some fun.  I navigated the internet browser to Youtube.com/disco, then searched for Richard Marx to set up a Youtube playlist of Richard Marx tunes, and walked away.  When I walked past it a second time, it was still playing, even when it switched to demo display mode.  :D

How amusing would that be, if people were constantly navigating tablets at stores all around the world to play Richard Marx?

And if you're wondering what the first Richard Marx song played in the automated Youtube playlist, I have it below:

Don't be fooled: Boehner is not trying to raise the debt ceiling.

Ezra Klein (WaPo) writes that Boehner's been running in the opposite direction that he needs to be, if ever the debt ceiling crisis were to be resolved.

"Lately, Boehner has not been governing. After he failed to pass a conservative resolution to the debt crisis without Democratic votes, he should have begun cutting the deals and making the concessions necessary to gain Democratic votes. That, after all, is what he will ultimately have to do. It’s what all this is supposed to be leading up to."

I think he's correct: Boehner's only real option has always been to find a compromise bill that was palatable for everyone, not just conservative Republicans.  But this illustrates to me, that the premise is all wrong.

As I have written many times, Boehner's actions are not towards raising the debt ceiling, but to absolve Republicans from any blame: we passed OUR bill, if you don't support it, it's YOUR fault that the debt ceiling wasn't raised.

It may sound cynical, but it's actually quite realistic.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell even put forth his own idea - that Majority Leader Senator Reid has incorporated - that would allow Republicans to vote against a debt ceiling increase while actually allowing the debt ceiling to be raised.  It is political posturing to assign all blame to Democrats while wiping their own hands clean.

And by the way, I'm not the only one who thinks Reid's idea of incorporating McConnell's ideas is wrong.  Come on, why bail out Republicans if they don't have the political courage to stand up for what's right?

Short-term US Treasuries diverging from long-term.

It's not quite the inverted yield curve, but it does seem to point to markets predicting a short-term problem with the debt ceiling, coupled with long-term stability and concerns for the economy as a whole.

And Democrats have completely capitulated to Republicans.

Bloomberg and other outlets have noted that Senator Reid has revised his plan to now include a two-step debt ceiling increase based on Republican Senator Mitch McConnell's bizarre game that would allow the President to raise the debt ceiling if Congress is unable to overturn his actions by a super majority (2/3rds vote).

So here's the score:

• Reid has capitulated to Republican demands for dollar for dollar cuts to debt ceiling increases;
• Reid had capitulated to Republican demands for no new revenues;
• Reid has capitulated to Republican demands for a two-step debt ceiling increase;
• Reid has capitulated to Republican demands for a way to allow Republicans to absolve themselves from taking on any blame for increasing the debt ceiling, while allowing the debt ceiling to increase.
• Reid has NOT included the Democratic demand for tax revenue increases (by eliminating the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, and eliminating loopholes);
• Reid has NOT included the Democratic demand for a long-term solution to both the debt ceiling and the debt.

Which leads to the question: when did Senator Reid become a Republican?

WSJ: DOJ investigating Nortel IP sale.

Finally.  Someone over at the DOJ must have been paying attention, and noticed that Google Android's main rivals (RIM, Apple and Microsoft) may be trying to box out Android from the market place...you know, exactly what I previously complained about.  Word from the WSJ is, that the DOJ is talking to those three, to see what their intentions are, and might slap requirements on the purchase of Nortel's IP.



via CNET, source: WSJ

Maxi pad with wings...London Olympics Aquatic Center

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Well, let me add a few words: It was SUPPOSED to look like this (below).  You can see some subtle yet substantial changes in how it was built, from how it was presented:

Market signalling concern over economy, not debt levels.

Fascinating.  Despite the lack of progress on the debt ceiling with a threat of a ratings downgrade, the bigger news has been the dismal economy, with Q1-2011 restated much lower than expected at 0.4% GDP growth, and Q2-2011 came in at 1.3%...not exactly booming.  The threat of a double-dip recession seems to have weighed in on markets more heavily than the debt ceiling deadline, as 10-year US Treasuries had fallen through July, most notably today after the GDP announcements.

The GDP numbers were also revised going back to 2003, showing how much more dramatic the recession of 2008 really was. Also worth noting, is that after 2003, the economy slowly began to sag, with each subsequent peak lower than the previous, and each subsequent valley lower than the previous.  In effect, Mark Zandi's 2008 testimony to Congress about stimulating the economy was correct:

• Permanent Tax Cuts
• Extend Alternative Minimum Tax Patch 0.48
• Make Bush Income Tax Cuts Permanent 0.29
• Make Dividend and Capital Gains Tax Cuts Permanent 0.37
• Cut Corporate Tax Rate 0.3

That is to say, that the Bush tax cuts and capital gains reductions were useless.

IE users are mentally-challenged?

This is amusing to say the least.  AptiQuant conducted a sublime study of IQ and browsers, by purchasing ads and SEO placement of its free IQ tests (based on the common WISC-iV), resulting in over 100K scores from users on different browsers.

100 is the mean IQ score and people who score 71 - 85 are classified as "borderline intellectual functioning" under the DSM-IV.  If you click through on that link to borderline intellectual functioning, you can see the other ranges of intelligence as classified by DSM-IV and David Wechsler.

Oddly - or perhaps predictably - IE users averaged below 100 on their IQ tests, with one exception: IE with Chrome Frame.  Chrome users tended to score better than IE and Firefox.  Safari users scored just slightly higher than Chrome users.  IE with Chrome Frame, Opera and Camino users scored significantly higher than everyone else, in the superior range of the IQ test.  It appears that Google (as well as Opera and Camino) has had a significant impact on IE overall -- notice the shift of IQ scorers away from IE6 and IE7 to Chrome and IE with Chrome Frame.

When looking at the percentage of users opposite their IQ scores, there are three very distinct patterns:

1. Most IE users are generally below the mean IQ of 100, and fall off towards the higher IQ range - a long tail;
2. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users seem to resemble a statistical bell curve with the bulk of users scoring above the mean;
3. Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame users are the reverse long tail, where the majority of users score at the very top range of the IQ test.

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So, which browser do YOU use?

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Update 8/3: BBC reports that Aptiquant and its story was completely bogus!  What an excellent hoax, though.  It plays on the suspicions of many, about the types of people who would stick with IE.  A lot of people seem to be incredibly angry, but I think it's rather awesome that someone or some group could nearly pull off this spectacular hoax.

Boehner shifts the goal posts once again.

Earlier this week, Boehner shifted the goal posts.  Throwing away his plans for matching dollar cuts for debt ceiling increases with no tax revenues, he added some modest spending (Pell Grants), a two-tier debt ceiling and a requirement to vote on a balanced budget amendment. 

Now he's changed it again.

This time, he's required the balanced budget amendment to pass Congress before that second tier is voted on.  Or in other words, we're DEFINITELY going to face a repeat of the ransom-hostage situation we're facing right now, and in the dead of Winter.

It looks like Boehner, true to what I've posted some time ago, is not actually intent on raising the debt ceiling.  He's more intent on winning a political victory to slough off blame by saying, "we passed OUR bill, if you don't agree, it's your fault for the default."

A thought: steel or ceramic kitchen utensils?

Ceramic knives and other utensils are sharp and stay sharp for its entire useful life, are very hard and strong, but expensive and it will chip at the blade's edge.

Steel knives and other utensils are sharp but require sharpening at regular intervals, are flexible and strong, can be cheap if using inexpensive versions of stainless steel alloy, or can be expensive with high rust-resistance alloy, and it will nick at the blade's edge.

I like steel; they actually last longer because you can sharpen the nicks out, whereas you're out of luck with ceramic knives once they chip.  Ceramic knifes are awesome in cutting vegetables with skins that are tough to break with dull steel knives; tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplant come to mind.  Still, I can deal with dull knives; chipped ones, not so much.

Microsoft privacy -- hypocrisy in action.

Declan McCullagh at CNET reports that Microsoft has collected the MAC addresses and geolocation of millions of WiFi-enabled devices, and as a database, is readily accessible online to track said devices.  So it is ironic that earlier this month, Microsoft published the code of its version of Google's Street View data collection, to show that it was not collecting private data, though obviously it did not tell anyone it was transmitting your location, such that people smart enough to know how to, could track your location.

Truthfully, having my MAC address transmitted publicly is not that big of a deal, considering it only allows my device to be tracked, if WiFi is enabled at the time -- I don't have my phone's WiFi turned on most of the time.  And it does not mean that your devices are vulnerable as a result.  What it does do however, is it makes it easier for people to spy on your location, and that can be a bit creepy.

Aha! Google bought some IBM patents.

Google had quietly purchased 1,030 patents from IBM two weeks ago.  According to the original story, some of the patents cover "A number of the patents also cover relational databases, object oriented programming, and a wide array of business processes."

If you were keeping score, Google just bought MORE patents than it currently has produced on its own (728 as of today).

It's no wonder why Google was so coy about its strategy after dropping out of the bidding in the Nortel patents, and why Chairman Eric Schmidt was adamant that Google would stand behind its Android partners, though lacking specifics.  As if it were at a candy store, Google got to pick a handful of strategically targeted patents from one of the biggest patent owners (some 64,000+ patents), for use against its rivals and their lawsuits.  I'm sure we'll find out more about the whole package of patents purchased; in the meantime you can click on over to the SEO By the Sea blog for a short list of patents -- XML and data mining anyone?

via WSJ, originally from SEO By the Sea blog

Nielsen: Android US market share growth unabated.

Nielsen's second quarter 2011 numbers are out, and they show strong, continued growth of Android in the US.

By examining Nielsen's Android numbers over the last several quarters:
Q2-2011 - 39%
Q1-2011 - 29%
Q4-2010 - 25%
Q3-2010 - 19%
Q2-2010 - 13%
Q1-2010 - 9%

If those lawsuits and royalty extortions were supposed to curtail Android growth, it sure hasn't shown up yet.  Heck, if anything Android is growing faster.

The roses are *finally* blooming at the Rose Garden.

When the walls come tumbling down...

Conservative journalist Jennifer Rubin is fooling herself.

I had to crack up when I read her post today.  She writes that, if Boehner is successful in getting his debt ceiling bill passed in the House, "President Obama, after decrying the plan, will almost certainly have to sign it."

Uh, no he most certainly doesn't.

It has leaked out that Standard and Poors will downgrade the US' rating if the Boehner plan becomes law.  And the President is getting into the ear of the ratings agencies to sell them on the Reid plan.  Boehner and the Republicans can most certainly try to change the minds of the ratings agencies, but the problem of the Boehner plan is that it forces Congress to relive this debt ceiling nightmare TWICE in the next 16 months -- that's not going to fly.

No Ms. Rubin, it's the other way around: Democrats will force Senate Republicans to sign onto their bill, and Boehner will have to fall on his own sword to get just enough Republicans to pass Reid's bill.  If not, if Republicans fail to embrace Reid's bill, Republicans will most certainly be wiped out in 2012 as the nation falls into a sudden, quick economic slump and markets crash, even if they come to their senses and agree after the deadline, to pass the Reid bill.

I must have missed this movie.

Anticipation of WP7 Mango? Not really.

The anticipation is not building.

A sign of Facebook's and Twitter's decline?

Ai Weiwei joined Google+.

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Side note: Hey Google, where's my invite?  I got my Google Music Beta and Spotify invites, but you seem to have lost my Google+ invite.

Netflix' pricing plan...how's that going over?

It was going trending up, with some peaks and valleys.

It's been headed downward since the day after its subscription changes.

The recent trend may be a valley in the continued rise in stock price.  But the start of the current trend coming the day after the announcement of the subscription changes, doesn't seem like any small coincidence.

Boehner messed up. Vote postponed a day.

No small oopsie.

Boehner was shooting for $1.2B in cuts over the next decade in his plan.  When he gave it to the CBO to look over, the cuts only added up to $850B.  That meant Republicans had to go back to the drawing board, and the vote that was scheduled for Wednesday has been pushed back to Thursday.

It gets worse.

Because Reid's plan is to vote after Boehner's bill presumably fails, that puts Reid's bill up for a vote on Friday.  In turn, the House would have to vote some time during the weekend on the Senate's version, but House Republicans have already said no way to Reid's plan.  So it comes down to negotiations.

It'll end up being Boehner's job to convince enough Republicans to peel away from the conservative majority, to vote alongside House Democrats, to get Reid's bill passed...say Sunday.  Those changes will then need to be reincorporated into the Senate version, and the Senate will have to vote on it once again...say Monday.  Then the President has to sign it....Tuesday, D-Day (Default-Day)?

To make it work, one has to sacrifice...a lot.

It may still simply die in the House.  Boehner would have to fall on his own sword.  By turning off the majority of Republicans in the House (with his attempts to pass the Reid bill in the House), he will end up losing his Speaker's job (the conservative majority will look elsewhere and vote in their choice for a new Speaker), and maybe even his re-election in 2012.

So far, Boehner has not taken the opportunities to peel away from Tea Party Republicans and lead the House out of this with a true bipartisan bill that would get the support of the Senate and White House.

Ironic, isn't it?

And no irony is lost on the US Chamber of Commerce.  After spending millions to get those Tea Party Republicans elected, they are now struggling to convince those same Republicans on the importance of raising the debt ceiling.

And it all makes the Republican lock-step vote for Cut Cap and Balance bill ironic as well.  Silly Republicans...did they really think this would end in their favor?

Run, don't walk! Staples has $100 off coupon for tablets!

Via Phandroid, Staples has a coupon for $100 off tablets, excluding the Nook, Kindle and HP TouchPad, here.  Good through this Saturday (7/30).

Some big purchases are harder than others / bought a laptop

I remember when buying my condo, it was one of the hardest things to do, to sign a paper that committed one to a long-term debt.  If you hate your decision after the fact, it ends up being buyer's remorse, if you simply have anxieties over spending so much money, it's buyer's hesitation.  Oddly, when it came to buying my last vehicle, there was no hesitation, no doubts whatsoever, and that was a pretty big deal, with no trade-ins.

Tonight, I found what was extremely close to the perfect laptop (refurbished Dell) online, with a discount coupon for an additional 15% off.  The total was nearly $825, but it brought the same sort of fear and doubt as when I bought my condo.  The fear in this case, was whether or not I was buying the right device -- a laptop over a desktop, and whether or not I should be buying at a time like this.

You probably already know the drill: laptops never have the same price-to-feature and power ratio as a desktop.  But it gives one a lot of freedom to work in any office, coffee shop, or at a jobsite, and can do much more than a netbook...what I currently use because of its portability.

As for the timing, I guess one can't escape the economic anxiety of the recent month, with job markets going sideways, a possible default, etc.  If hell breaks loose, do I really want to be invested in a laptop when I've already got other devices?  Turns out, I'll probably let go of two of my other devices (a netbook and a 9 year old P4 backup in case my workstation died.)

In the end, I decided to place faith in the future, and reminded myself that this new laptop will actually be 3x faster than my current 4.3 year old Xeon workstation with two dual cores / 8 threads...I know this, because I've previously benchmarked it on the same test that I've checked against this incoming laptop's CPU.  By the way, my last 3 computers have all been Dell refurbs and I have yet to run into any problems, going back 10 years now.

So here's the specs:

• Core i7-2720QM (Sandy Bridge)
• 17.3" 1920x1080 LED-backlit screen
• 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555 video card w/ Optimus switching
• 4GB (2 DIMMS) 1333 ECC SDRAM
• 500GB 7200rpm HD
• 8x DVD-RW
• Windows7 Home Premium 64bit
• 9-cell / 90-Whr battery
• Intel WiFi 6230 card
• Bluetooth 3.0
• USB 3.0 (2) and 2.0 (2) ports
• HDMI 1.4 port
• SPID/F optical audio output (via headphone port)
• Intel's Wireless Display
• Gigabit ethernet
• 9-way card reader

To get a similar setup, brand new from anywhere, would cost in the neighborhood of $1300~$1400.  A very close to matching spec (including exact same CPU) Apple Mac book costs $2499.  They don't even sell laptops running with an i7-2720QM at Costco; the highest they have is the i7-2630QM, which is respectable, but there is a 14% difference in performance (PassMark CPU Mark) that is important to me.  The next highest performance CPU scores only 5% higher (i7-2820QM), so the price-benefit ratio is not so good there.

Oh, and this particular model laptop from Dell has room for dual hard drives, so the plan is to buy an SSD and run off the SSD as primary, to further speed up the laptop and make it smoking fast.

I could have paid an extra $30 for 8GB RAM (Non-ECC) and BluRay, but honestly, I don't use BluRay because it costs too much to buy and rent, and I really want to use that money for an SSD...speed is my #1 concern.  If one has a solid SSD, one doesn't technically need to bother with a full load of RAM, you know what I mean?

So what do you think...bargain or waste of money?  Only thing is, now I need to go buy a 17" sleeve.

WTH is up with the DOJ: Apple allowed to pursue InterDigital?

Apple just won a bid where they put up $2.6B of a $4.5B offer under the pseudonym firm name Rockstar Bidco, for Nortel's 6000+ patents.  After losing to Rockstar Bidco that included Google's top mobile rivals (RIM, Microsoft and Apple) Google's made another stalking horse bid: InterDigital.  Bloomberg infers that Apple may be chasing a bid to cut Google out of a patent portfolio to protect Android.

WTH?

First off, it's incredulous that the DOJ hasn't voiced any concerns over what seems to me to be an obvious collusion between Google's main wireless competitors to exclude Google from gaining equal footing with them.

But second, if the DOJ is giving tacit approval behind the scenes for Apple to go after InterDigital's 18,000+ patents, this is outrageous.   We're going to need an independent ethics investigation over this complicity to harm Google's ability to compete in the market place by Microsoft's and Apple's litigious attacks.

Not only is the patent system broken, but so is our own Department of Justice.

Boehner: I didn't sign up for this.

CBS News has a priceless quote overheard by one of its correspondents, of Boehner complaining before making his post-Obama address to the nation:

"I didn't sign up for going mano-a-mano with the President of the United States."

Which of course begs the question: If you requested to be the Speaker of the House and twice walked out on the President during crucial talks, what exactly were you expecting in return... cookies and milk?

I thought I'd just post an early prediction of the next three weeks in US politics.

• They'll take their votes (the Boehner plan in the House and the Reid plan in the Senate); (7/27)
• Both will pass in their respective chamber but fail to pass in the opposite chamber; (7/28)
• Republicans will point the finger at Democrats for not signing onto Cut Cap and Balance, while Democrats will complain that Republicans were never genuinely interested in raising the debt ceiling; (7/28)
• Obama administration will openly talk of the 14th Amendment; (7/28)
• Republicans will fire a preemptive lawsuit to seek validity of court standing, then to seek a permanent injunction; (7/29) 
• SCOTUS announces they will hold an unprecedented court review over the weekend; (7/30)
• SCOTUS will then reject the use of the 14th Amendment on Monday morning; (8/1)
• Worldwide markets immediately react with 3~4% drops; (8/1)
• Government shuts down; (8/2)
• Markets drop another 3~5%; (8/3)
• Republicans blame Democrats for the drop, based on their dire warnings prior to the deadline; (8/2, 8/3)
• Markets drop another 10%; (8/4 - 8/5)
• Riots in home towns of Tea Party Republicans and all across America Democratic politicians will be marching with labor, seniors and the general public; (8/6 - 8/9)
• Congress escapes to the Capitol for security and an emergency session in the middle of their typical Labor Day recess (August 8 - Sept 5) to pass the Reid bill; (8/10 - 8/11)
• Obama signs bill into law. (8/13)

The time line might be accelerated, but without a doubt, if Congress goes on its regularly scheduled recess, it will be the trigger that sends the nation into demonstrations, marches then riots.

What do you think?  Anyone still actually believe a deal can be done before August 2nd?

"Damn You, Auto Correct": laughing all the way!

Found this website of epic auto-correct text messages,http://damnyouautocorrect.com.

I haven't laughed this hard is years!  Best humor site!

Obama and Boehner speak to America and the world.

Obama: everyone is to blame, let's pass the bill that is a balanced, asking everyone share in sacrifice, the one that Senator Reid has written up.

Boehner: Cut Cap and Balance is something that everyone should support, and the Democrats are a bunch of irresponsible politicians for not supporting Cut Cap and Balance.  If Obama doesn't sign the bill, it's his fault.

Me: Boehner's a dick.

File under FYI: Frontline flea/tick topical applications never expire.

I found this single unit of Frontline sitting in the closet in a drawer that had been there for several years (5 I think).  Looking at it, it had just a lot number and no expiration date listed.  So naturally, I turned to the internet.  According to Merial's website FAQs:

"FRONTLINE Brand Products do not carry an expiration date. We recommend storing FRONTLINE Brand Products at room temperature and keeping them sealed in their original packaging. If stored under these conditions, FRONTINE Brand Products will not expire."

Good to know.  I rarely use flea meds except during the Summer, especially since I do not take my dog to the dog park -- have you seen the filth on the ground at dog parks these days? -- and I have never seen my dogs catch fleas during the Winter.

Left versus Right...a graphic diagram.

Via FastCoDesign, a graphic by David McCandless.  Nicely sums up why we think differently.  You can buy a ~16"x23" litho print, for $32.

Origami crane with flapping wings using memory alloy.

Just watch the video and think about the possibilities.  You can (sorta) make this yourself, you just need some Flexinol memory alloy wires, and follow the directions here.

via Make Online

SHOCK! It's past 6:00 pm EDT, but no debt deal!

The Republican self-imposed deadline of 4:00 EDT to announce a framework to calm markets down before their openings in Asia passed without a plan.  For the record, the TSE and the Hang Seng open around 8:00 pm EDT, so they could still come up with an announcement, but I don't think so.  (Early market trading in Asia already started.)

It was never going to happen -- as I've been saying for months now -- because Republicans just don't see the threat in keeping the debt ceiling in place.  Just yesterday Rep. Camp (R-MI) insisted that their share of any compromise, was the act of lifting the debt ceiling, sending a clear signal of intractability of the issue.

Watch his Fox News interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday.  Wallace pins Boehner on point that there is hardly any cooperation and compromise if the House Republicans passed a bill (Cut Cap and Balance) without support from the Senate and the President.  Boehner has no actual answer.

And now, Sen. Reid (D-NV) has a preliminary plan for a dollar-for-dollar cuts to debt increase of $2.5T without revenue increases, which is calling Boehner's bluff.  If House Republicans won't accept this deal from Democrats, Republicans will lose all credibility, and possibly get wiped out in the 2012 elections.

[Edit: You can watch the US stock futures prices fluctuating right now, here. Dow Jones Industrials as of 6:09 EDT Sunday, is down 107 points.]

Boehner: It's my way or the highway.

In the end, at the 11 1/2 hour, Boehner has decided that House Republicans are simply going to pass the bill THEY want, and if others don't want to agree with THEIR bill, then those people are at fault for letting the US economy and global markets crash.

Typical, trying yet again to absolve themselves of sin responsibility.

Investors preparing for a Black Monday?

Some investors appear to be preparing for a bad Monday morning, resulting from Boehner walking out of talks on the day of the self-imposed deadline by President Obama to get a deal to raise the debt ceiling.

As I've ranted for the past several months, Republicans aren't looking to raise the debt ceiling at all.  The media has been giving people including Wall Street the impression that a deal would be done, if at the last minute; I hold no illusions in my mind.

• First, we've had many House Republicans publicly object to raising the debt ceiling, including nearly every Republican presidential candidate.
• Second, we've had Republicans insist that their share of any compromise, was the act of lifting the debt ceiling, in itself.
• Third, Republicans have stated many times that they believe Democrats are spreading fears about the economy on purpose, and that the debt ceiling in place would have few negative effects on the economy, that in fact, the opposite would be true.
• Fourth, nearly every Republican politician voted for the Cut Cap and Balance bill that would have held the debt ceiling in place, anyway.
• Fifth, it's all about politics, because Republicans would have you believe that capping spending at 18% of GDP is reasonable, when Paul Ryan's own Path to Prosperity, the budget bill that House Republicans voted (and passed) previously, projected federal spending to continue at over 20% of GDP well over the next ten years.
• Sixth, when Boehner walked away on Friday, saying that the goal post was moved by President Obama, he was lying.  It turns out that the $400B increase in revenue came from the Senate's Gang of Six proposal, which the President had decided to back, and had presented it as early as this past Tuesday.  It was, and always has been, about politics of the Tea Party in the House.
• Seventh, no matter what anyone thinks, Republicans as late as today, continue to express their desire to CUT spending, without a single mention of raising the debt ceiling.  Boehner's spokesperson just said hours ago, "The Speaker is determined to tackle our spending problem in a significant way and, as he stressed last night, is committed to preventing a default on our debt."  Notice, not a mention about lifting the debt ceiling.

Even if leaders can find a possible agreement for a temporary increase in the debt ceiling, the Tea Party Republicans have definitively stated, without any reservation, that they will not vote for any debt ceiling increase without massive spending cuts.  It is dead, once it goes up for a vote in the House, and right now, there is barely enough time to get a vote on the floors of both the House and Senate, let alone a backup plan if this backup plan fails.

So you see, Monday morning is going to be hell.

Amy Winehouse dead.

Possibly from a drug overdose, and without an ounce of surprise, the sultry-voice of Amy Winehouse was permanently silenced today.  As a WaPo blog posted, "But it is terribly sad, and it brings to a tragic conclusion what could and should have been a great musical career."

Entertainment Weekly cites other stars who died at the age of 27, including Kurt Cobain.

I'd read about the story over two hours ago, and placed her Back to Black and Frank CDs on hold online, at the library -- at the time there was no one else in front of me and now there's a growing line behind me. [Edit 22 hours later: 3 dozen people now lined up behind me for Back to Black CD at the library's queue. 28 hours later: over 60 people now lined up behind me in the queue for Back in Black.]

The news has exploded online and offline, in memoriam.  When you look at her picture from before she became famous, it makes it all the more tragic that she clearly chased the wrong path that ended with her spiraling downward.

Amy Winehouse, as we should remember her by.  Photo via Metro

Sometimes the internet can work against you.

"[Aziz] Shittu said the [Texas A&M] Aggies’ coaching staff contacts him every day on Facebook and has been relentless with its recruiting."

Straight out of The Sporting News, the implication here, is that Texas A&M MAY have made improper contacts with a recruit during quiet periods. An extremely heavy emphasis on MAY, because we'd have to look at the dates of every one of their posts on Shittu's wall.

But what this points to, as many sports columnists have pointed out lately, that the internet not only makes it far more difficult to cheat the rules and get away with it, but every word you say is tracked and reported, so you must be sure that you say exactly what you mean, and nothing more.  Why, just ask Marc Tyler how he feels about his outburst, and we all know how Dillon Baxter exaggerated some claims, last year.

Oracle is officially evil.

Via Florian Mueller (FOSS Patents), in a post at Business Insider, Mueller describes how Oracle wants to increase potential damages awarded by any IP infringement by Google over Java, by calculating Google's NON-MOBILE business going back 7 years.

Now hold on...7 years?  That's before Google even brought in Andy Rubin and his concept of Android -- 2005.  And NON-MOBILE business?  WTF?

Larry Ellison has bought the nut farm.  And Oracle is now, officially evil.

---

UPDATE: CNET gets the scoop: Oracle tried to erase all history of former Sun CEO's blog praising Google for choosing Java, but has been caught in the act. This is what Sun's former CEO said at the time (2007):

"Today is an incredible day for the open source community, and a massive endorsement of two of the industry's most prolific free software communities, Java and Linux." -- Jonathan Schwartz

Oracle is now officially worse than evil: they're unethical jerks.

Anonymous still downloading NATO documents.

According to CNET, the hacker group Anonymous still has access to NATO's servers and continues to download databases of about 1GB of information.

Could this event be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back?  There is no measured response to such bold hacking claims and subsequent releases of data; it's about to get real, and sadly many civil rights may be lost in the process.

7-22-2011 Google Offers: Elephant's Deli

I swear, it was just yesterday that I was thinking how awesome it would be, if there was a Google Offers for Elephant's Deli, one of my favorite places, even if it is a bit pricey...and voila, it came true!  Priced just about right, too, for two people...or you can just stock up on a few of their fancy salads.

Just like the offer for Powell's Books, this one seems to be very popular with over 250 purchases within the hour.

Android tablet growth, Q2-2011.

According to PC Mag, Strategy Analytics reported that in Q2-2011, Android's share of the tablet market jumped to 30.1% from 2.9%, a year ago; meanwhile, Microsoft was relegated to third place behind Android and iOS tablets, with 4.6% (Windows7 tablets), and Apple saw its iPad share of the tablet market drop from 94.7% down to 61.3%.

The rise of the Androids, eh?

In similar news, it looks like many people are having startup issues with the Toshiba Thrive tablets.  Now that the original Motorola Xoom 32GB has come down to $499, it looks like the Android tablet wars are in full swing.

Kentucky Fried Chickens.

A family leaves its chickens in the car in 90+ temperatures, while they go shopping at Walmart.

One died.

No word if it was original or extra crispy.

Republican-led House taking a break this weekend.

This weekend, past President Obama's deadline of getting the debt ceiling issue resolved, and with just one week to go before the August 2nd deadline, House Republicans have decided to take a break this weekend.

No sense working with Senators on the Gang of Six plan, to try to streamline its approval within a week, huh?  After all, it's not like House Republicans are going to lift the debt ceiling anyway, now that they've voted for the Cut Cap and Balance that keeps the debt ceiling in place.

Or they could just simply be trying to get away from the heat.

Some fines you might incur if you live in Portland Oregon

• $30-$150 Unlicensed pets.
• $30  Parking in a Sno Park zone without a permit.
• $34  Parking ticket for exceeding allotted time, first.
• $50  Parking the wrong way (opposite of traffic direction).
• $77  Parking in a day-use State of Oregon park, without a permit.
• $145 Speeding between 11 and 20 MPH over the speed limit.

• $175  Failure to pay fare for TriMet's MAX (lowest priced ticket = $2.05).  Ouch.

Late July Hypocrites.

There is no end to the repeated hypocritical actions of some folks.  To wit, this latest revelation that many Tea Party Republicans both freshmen and established in the House and Senate, have talked tough when it comes to earmarks and special projects, only to quietly secure special funding for projects to benefit their constituents...or as we have come to call them...pork barrel projects.

So it seems Republicans are just as interested in pork as the people they replaced.  No surprise.

Gmail's new iGoogle gadget interface.

Google changed the iGoogle Gmail gadget to make it look more like their mobile interface, which is better than the pop out window they had been using, in many ways...the only practical issue I have, is that it would be a lot more useful if iGoogle itself had user-scalable columns instead of the fixed, predetermined columns.

The inbox enlarges texts for readability.

Emails use the frame within the gadget, instead of popping out of the gadget.

Easy to simply scroll down and find the labels - even custom ones - to find emails.

MyTouch 4G Slide now available.

Just went live this morning, and in addition to the khaki-colored phone, there also is a black version.

$249 w/ 2-year plan - $50 mail-in rebate = $199 final price.  Will have to check it out at the store this week.

Also later today (July 20), T-Mobile is expected to announce new, lower prices: $59.99 for unlimited everything (except 2GB cap on high speed, and after that speed is throttled.)

People who believe in horoscopes.

I just can't bring myself to date people who strongly believe in horoscopes.

"I am currently 29 weeks pregnant looking to meet a nice, non-controlling type of guy. Please no Geminis or Scorpios."1

Of any of the thousands of different possible effects - natural, unnatural, chemical, genetic, environmental, physical - somehow horoscope believers place all of their faith in the time of the year, to predetermine with exact certainty, the personality of a person.

1. I'm sure the personal ad will be gone quickly, but it was amusing, at least.

The Buckeye Battle Cry concludes: NCAA excessively punished USC.

It's always interesting to read what others outside of the USC family thinks about the NCAA's case, especially when their own program is squarely in the sights of the NCAA.  The Buckeye Battle Cry, a fan site, took the time to look through many current and recent major NCAA investigations of USC, Tennessee, Ohio State, Boise State, North Carolina and Georgia, and is worth skimming through.

"For the most part, Southern Cal makes a fantastic case. In the vast majority of the allegations they denied, the NCAA clearly had a weak case – often based solely on the comments of a single source who was anything but unimpeachable. USC drives the point home that the NCAA has failed to meet their own requirements for evidence, referencing previous NCAA investigations into other programs to prove their point."

 You can always tell which fan has read through at least part of the materials involved with the case, by their opinion.  If they haven't bothered to read anything, they insist USC cheated; if they did read at least portions of it, they come to believe USC was railroaded

I can imagine years from now, USC's fight will become a popular case study, highlighting what went wrong with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions and the Appeals Committee, and further out, it will hold a special hate relationship in the hearts of Trojans on par with ND and UCLA.

July 2011 Hypocrites.

In this latest episode, we have Republicans pushing for their Cap Cut and Balance plan, capping federal spending at 18% of GDP.  Of course, this completely ignores the Paul Ryan Path to Prosperity - the bill that the House passed two months ago - that keeps federal spending above 20% for the next two decades.

Hypocrites!

Excerpt from page 8, Path to Prosperity

Must be time to upgrade my Android phone.

It's been nearly 2 years and 9 months since I bought my G1 on T-Mobile and I won't lie: it's a bit beat up.  Stuck in Android 1.6, I saw no point in rooting the phone to CyanogenMod and installing 2.1 Eclair or higher, given the slowness of the CPU.  I know others have successfully rooted and updated the OS, though not to Gingerbread, but again, slowness.

So this weekend, the phone started to do a soft reboot on certain actions, which was quite disturbing.  I decided to do a factory reset.  While that did the trick, giving me a much more responsive, faster and more stable phone, I learned the hard way that I lost access to Google Maps with Navigation and Google Goggles.  Because the new updates allow for only 2.2 or higher, I'm out of luck and have no choice but to upgrade.

Now, I'm not pointing finger or anything, but I can't help but suspect that there was a "bug" in a certain "weather" app, that seemed to make my phone less stable.  I ended up not downloading any weather app - since they take up so damned much space on the phone anyway - and split the two functions that I cared the most about: temperature and radar.  The radar app is nothing but pure awesome, but the temperature one is a tad lame, as it has automatically stuck itself to a weather station 10 miles away, when I know there's two located within 2000 feet from me.  At least the two add up to less than 1/4 the amount of memory that "weather" app with a "bug" in it, took up.

I was also having problems with a certain colorful alarm clock that was laggy and doing all sorts of stuff to my phone, that I had to close it when not in use, with taskiller.  So I skipped on that alarm clock app, and went with Alarm Clock Xtreme, free.  Seems to work fine.  No sudden reboots and no laggy either.

And by the way, it's a heck of a lot easier to download a bunch of apps via my computer (since they made changes prior to Honeycomb's release), where I link up my phone / device to the android market webpage, then I can filter and easily search and schedule apps to download to my phone.

Of course, without Navigation, I feel weird...so I'm on the prowl for a new phone, and I think, for the time being, I'll stick with T-Mobile and get the soon-to-be-released myTouch 4G Slide that has the first camera phone without shutter lag -- if you have a smart phone, you know exactly what I mean.

My next phone?

Some photos up at the Portland Arboretum.

I was going up to the Rose Garden, but damn, it was crowded with cars backed up into the neighborhood side streets.  So I drove past to the lower Arboretum area near the Vietnam Memorial, but decided to go to the area across the Winter Garden.

I didn't stay very long -- maybe about 20 minutes -- due to the giant mosquito marauders circling and dive-bombing for a chance to draw blood.  Being highly allergic (I get these glowing red bumps that are itchy), I couldn't spend the time I wanted to, to set up photos with the tripod.

By the way, I always prefer cloudy but bright days, to sunny, blue sky days, for these macro shots.  The contrast is too much on sunny days for these photos to turn out well.

Scientists: tsunami from Great Tohoku earthquake generated faint red glow.

A huge breakthrough: scientists were able to capture a faint red glow with their cameras, following the massive Japan earthquake earlier this year, produced by the slight pressure change from the tsunami wave.  As a result, they have proposed sending up satellites that would be able to track real-time, the location and direction of any tsunami wave, as it occurs.

via Star-Advertiser

The debt ceiling and cash flow.

Quick thought here:

Self-employed, investors, landlords and similar classes of people don't file their quarterly estimated taxes until September 15th.  Consider that 21M of the 27M firms in 2008 had no employees, and they represented over $960B in sales / receipts.1

Assuming a rough 25% tax of an estimated $1T in sales, that would be 11.5% of 2010 total estimated US government receipts.2

Suddenly, that 35% cut is now much larger, because of a cash flow problem where some of the US' income won't be coming in until at least September 15th.  With the debt ceiling cap in place, August is about to get real.

Real scary.


1. http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html
2. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0467.pdf

Inside Google, from Employee #59, and why Google is successful

WSJ's got lots of coverage from different angles, of what Google was like, early in its life from an insider's perspective (Douglas Edwards, employee #59) as an employee, from Edwards' book, "I'm Feeling Lucky"...here, here and here.

"Is Google secretive? No question. Arrogant? Maybe. Tone-deaf to the concerns of the very users it claims to serve? Occasionally. But evil? I don't think so."

This dovetails into Robert Sutton's book, "Weird Ideas that Work", describing slow learners (more on that in a future post.)  It fits neatly, that as an organization fully stocked with slow learners, Google is not only extremely creative, but it also appears to others as arrogant, secretive and deaf.  If you read through the excerpts of Edwards' account of working inside Google, it's obvious that he was not quite one of these slow learners, as he would frequently push back with conventional thinking.

You might realize the pattern: tech companies that grow old, become less relevant, because they slowly lose their creativity and penchant to embrace creative risks.  The longer a company exists, the more the people are consumed by net worth and stock valuations. When asked during yesterday's Q2-2011 earnings call, about how much focus they put on stock price, Larry Page said:

"We have a lot of things to do at Google, and we don't control our stock price. We're focused on overall profitability on long-term, and revenue growth. We focus on that long-term."

Ask the dozens of other leading tech company CEOs the same question, they'll answer it with an MBA's perspective that goes along these lines: We're always keen on improving our value for investors, which is why we're doing..."

That's why Google is winning.

---

A small note: There is a discrepancy on the circumstances of his departure, where one writer cites a reorganization and another, Edwards says that he quit so that he could decompress and enjoy time with family.

A smaller note: I just had this weird moment of deja vu about writing this post.  This is how it happens: As I'm about to do something, the patterns in front of me appear to look familiar; as I stare into it, my brain starts to recall, as though in a dream, that a certain sequence of events are about to happen, a split second before they do.  Because the time between recall and action is so small, there is no changing the outcome from the expected action.  It's quite an odd sensation, and one that I've had nearly my entire life.

Why do we have to work on SS and Medicare now?

It has become a trite, accepted belief from the middle and the right, that we have to deal with Social Security and Medicare in order to deal with the budget deficit and federal debt with regards to the federal debt ceiling.  But WHY?

Medicare and Social Security have their own trust funds.  Yes, their trust funds will run out at some point in the future, as the baby boomers create pressure on their funds that is greater than what was previously anticipated.  But no, solving these problems today won't make a dent in the federal budget today, tomorrow, the next year or the next decade.  In fact, if both Medicare and Social Security were to exhaust their surplus fund dollars, they would be faced with what is essentially a balanced budget requirement to hand out only as much as it takes in.  At the height of the imbalance, retirees would end up receiving less than they were promised and had paid into the system, estimated to be at just 75% of promised money for SS.

Yes, dealing with the problems now, could make it easier to deal with the problems, if -and only if - people were required to pay more into the system.  For instance, were the cap to be removed or raised from payroll taxes (currently at $106,800 of earned income), then people earning hundreds and millions and billions of dollars would now have to pay more into the system.  But that's not what the middle and the right want; what they want to do, is raise the eligibility age for anyone under 50.  Under that idea, there is no reason to rush into making those changes, because you could do it 10 years from now, and place the burden onto anyone under 60, to make it work.

You might even hear the claim that this is about the money that the federal government borrows from the trust funds, I suspect.  But what the trust fund does, is invest in US government securities, i.e. the federal debt.  It is not the same as saying that monies paid to Social Security and Medicare go into the general fund.  They do not ADD to the debt, but instead, FUND the debt.

Yes, they need fixing, and there are many ways to fix them, but there is no point to rushing to solve these problems now.  We should take the time to articulate the problems and potential solutions without 11th hour deadlines.

How I know Congress will not increase the debt ceiling by August 2.

That Cap, Cut and Balance bill I wrote about earlier, has gone from 17 co-sponsors last week, to 31 co-sponsors in the Senate, and has about two-dozen Tea-Party groups (mix of national and local) signed on as sponsors.  They even have a Forbes blogger behind them.  Of course, the Tea Party absolutely won't allow Congress to cut a deal, no matter what.

Which I think is perfectly summed up by Chan Lowe's political cartoon from this past Monday.

Some brief history and perspective of Netflix subscription prices.

2002: $19.95 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs
2004: $21.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs
2004: $17.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs
2007: $16.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs + 17 hours of downloaded movies
2010: $19.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs + unlimited streaming
2011: $15.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs / $23.99 -- 3-at-a-time DVDs + unlimited streaming

So like I hinted previously, your DVD subscription price actually went down, in some regards, just as long as you drop streaming.  It's a compromise, of course, but hey, if you don't use streaming that often, drop it.

---

 Now let me take you down a different path, revisualizing the price changes with some context; you might find this one interesting, if not troublesome.

2004 August: Blockbuster enters online DVD rental business.
2004 November: Netflix lowers price.
2007 June (12th): Blockbuster lowers prices.
2007 June (27th): Netflix lowers prices.
2010 August: Blockbuster announces chapter 11 bankruptcy reorg.
2010 November: Netflix raises prices.
2011 March: Blockbuster sold to creditors.
2011 May: Blockbuster Canada enters bankruptcy protection.
2011 July: Netflix raises prices.

Yeah, I know huh?  Having more or less cut down its competition, Netflix no longer has constraints on its pricing.

Google Reader Play.

Have you played with Google Reader Play?  It's been around for over a year since it was released, but I had not given it much thought.  But lately, I've been adding more design eye candy to my RSS feeds.  To that end, it's been very enjoyable to review the eye candy with Google Reader Play.

Netflix: we knew there would be anger; whatever.

That's the crux of Greg Sandoval's post over at CNET.

[Netflix spokesman Steve] Swasey said Netflix did not go into this with its eyes closed. 

"We are not surprised." -- Steve Swasey

Which, sadly for all of us Netflix subscribers, means that Netflix's decision is final.  No amount of complaints will change their direction.  Though, I have noticed that some people are decidedly thrilled that they can go back to paying lower DVD rental rates without streaming, rewinding back to 2008 (me included.)

On a personal note, I can see it being completely manageable, to do 2-DVD-only plan @ $11.99 combined with free Hulu....aka what I'm doing anyway.  Really, there's only a handful of streams I've done in the past 12 months on Netflix, by comparison to my streaming on free Hulu.

On a related note, I think the reason why they decoupled streaming and DVD rentals, is so that they can independently raise rates in the future - as needed or desired - to adjust profit or incentivize subscribers to change their habits.  Of course, it also shows that Netflix is beginning to exhibit monopolistic behavior.

Why a balanced budget amendment is a very bad idea.

Two reasons:

1. It constrains what the government can do, to prevent wild fluctuations in the economic landscape.  If an asset bubble bursts (typically considered part of a natural economic cycle in an unconstrained market), then the federal government will have no choice but to cut spending.  In other words, Republicans would like America to go all in on Hayek, and completely reject Keynes.  And if you followed the two years after the 1929 crash, you'd understand that Hoover's laissez-faire did not improve the economy one bit.  You can't even practice voodoo economics, because for every tax cut you enact, you have to balance it with a spending cut elsewhere...and total GDP ends up either neutral or lower, because of how the trickle-down effect works.
2. It gives Republicans the political room to say, "Hey, we can't do anything to help the economy get out of a recession, because we're constrained".  I'm sure you've heard that one before...they'd rather be constrained by rules than take on actual responsibility and political risk that follows from deviating from a strict dogma.  A veritable bailout for Republicans, on their irresponsibility!  You see, if Republicans were serious about deficit reduction, they would not have eliminated the Paygo (pay as you go) rules when they were in power in both legislative bodies and the White House, and the most certainly wouldn't have kept the full cost of two wars off the books by excluding most of the annual costs from the omnibus spending bills.

And that's why a balanced budget amendment is a very bad idea.