10 thoughts for November 30, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. How does the #1 team in the nation -- Alabama -- allow a 109 yard run back of a failed field goal, to be run back for a touchdown to lose the game?  That was crazy.
2. USC lost to UCLA by three touchdowns, and just looked completely unorganized, uncoordinated and unprepared.  Ed Orgeron probably lost his opportunity to turn his tenure as head coach into a permanent gig, and that's too bad.  Normally, any coach who loses to both ND and UCLA, is on the hot seat, even if those were the only two losses of the season.
3. They looked sloppy from the start of the game to the end, with these little bursts of solid play in between that gave you false hope that they'd somehow settle down and play solid for the rest of the game.
4. Cody Kessler is a good quarterback, but doesn't seem to have any internal clock or the ability to see the whole field.  He doesn't find the wide open receiver and invites the sack.  Don't blame the offensive line, because you do with what you've got, not what you want.  Wittek throws a cannon but can't throw accurately when he's under pressure.  I think the future is in the freshman Gatorade Offensive Player of the Year, Max Browne.
5. Jim Mora has been a class act at UCLA all the way, and is a darn good head coach at the college level.  That's the only positive thing you'll get out of me about the Bruins.
6. You know who's beating China in the space race?  India.  Yes, India!  Ouch, right?
7. Speaking of China, do they really want to force a military confrontation with the US?  China could have been the bigger man and requested a pact to evenly split or equally develop any natural resources in the area surrounding the Senkaku islands.  Instead, they unilaterally declared the air space theirs.  Well, the Japanese can now unilaterally declare the mineral rights under that air space, theirs, right?  Any failure to properly contain this mess and the Chinese will find Republicans pushing for a military build up in the region -- a place that the Obama Administration is already trying to pivot towards, away from the Middle East.  Before you know it, one trigger-happy pilot and boom: we're trying to contain a war from breaking out beyond the thousands of people already dead from a confrontation.
8. Hey, if Afghanistan doesn't like the security pact being pushed by the US, we can't stop them from screwing themselves, now can we?  We're going to have to allow Afghan refugees, methinks.
9. An 85 year old Korean War veteran / retired Silicon Valley exec goes to North Korea to ask for help in locating missing South Korean comrades of his former unit.  I don't know who told him this was a good idea, but now he's in prison and has admitted to committing war crimes against North Korea.  Maybe it was a self-inflicted punishment resulting from guilt all these years of not knowing what happened to his comrades?
10. Paul Walker of Fast and Furious movies fame, died in a car accident involving a Porsche where he was the...passenger.  He wasn't the greatest of actors, but I did love the F&F movie series with him and Vin Diesel.  And Sung Kang.  And Eva Mendes.  And Michelle Rodriguez.  And...

Laughing at Avik Roy on News Hour.

Avik Roy was featured on PBS' News Hour, talking about the status of healthcare insurance, and offered some choice quotes worth tackling.  Rather, he piled on the bullshit so high, I felt compelled to point out how ridiculous his assertions were.

"I do share the goal and I think a lot of conservatives do share the goal that a basic safety net that does provide basic health care for everyone is an attractive and worthy goal."

Uh huh.  Doesn't that sound like a Compassionate Conservative, stuck in his own cognitive dissonance?  For now, just remember that he supports a basic safety net, and I'll revisit this quote to show how he explicitly contradicts himself.

"The question becomes when you create a system that disincentivizes people from being economically productive."

That's a silly exaggeration of the Laffer Curve.  Do you know of any person who deliberately quit working to take advantage of Medicaid?  For starters, Medicaid rolls are limited in number, so not everyone who qualify for Medicaid are able to get into Medicaid. Quitting your job to get into Medicaid is a massive risk.

To directly apply this to the ACA: How stupid would you have to be, to quit your job or find a lower-paying job, to qualify for federal subsidies?  The subsidy is scaled so that you pay a maximum percentage of your income towards healthcare insurance, so getting a lower-paying job has no effect on your after-insurance income.

"The [ACA] in general is largely redistributed, but in the wrong direction and in an unfair direction."

So, what's the point of pooled insurance, if you receive exactly the share that you put into the system?  Why therefore, don't we just require people to put money away into a special medical savings account?  The obvious answer is, that the people who end up being the sickest, won't be able to keep up with their expenses, and therefore is no better than not having insurance.

Let's not forget that, pre-ACA, people with congenital diseases or problems, were promptly dropped from their plans, then were unable to find insurance because of these pre-existing illnesses.  So, even if they wanted to buy insurance, they were denied.

 "If somebody is born with Down syndrome -- I think most Americans would say a child that is born with Down syndrome, let's try to provide that child with adequate health care."

Single adults who'll never have children have zero vested self-interest in covering the treatment of Down Syndrome children, now do they?  So here we go: Roy's demonstrating his inconvenient bullshit, where he's against redistribution, but yet for it.  Same thing goes for genetically-related breast cancer: Why would men, without any family history of breast cancer, want to have to pay for predominantly women who get breast cancer?

"When the government starts to determine what the plans must contain that you have problems with access to care."

So back to that first quote from Roy.  In some alternate universe, the government can build a medical safety net program, but yet, not determine what these safety nets include coverage for.  And, because Roy is against government as central planner, the government rather throws money at poor people and tells them to use it to buy whatever insurance they want, no strings attached, no predetermined items that must be covered.  If a conservative tells you that the best solution is for government to give poor people money without strings attached, we must be in that alternative universe.

Avik Roy seems genuinely concerned about people who cannot afford healthcare coverage or treatment, yet the very solutions he points to, contravene his dogma.  I really think he should quit working for a think tank.

10 thoughts for Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for:

1. Having a family that would take care of me if I got sick.
2. Having a dear friend that would take care of me if I got sick and didn't have family.
3. An education that taught me to be more analytical.
4. The people who coined the terms, "eye candy" and "visual porn".
5. Google.  It's been a decade so our memories are distant, but before Google, internet searches were fruitless endeavors.
6. The people who made it possible for me to design without using pen and paper and sketch rolls.
7. The ability to wake up midway through sleep, enough to realize that I'm dreaming, then falling back to sleep with the intent of enjoying the dream that I had temporarily interrupted, or changing the subject of my dream.
8. JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon.  Just about everything these two guys do, I love.
9. The internet.  Without it, life would be dramatically different, don't you think?
10. My dog.

10 thoughts for November 26, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. I wrote about this several months ago: Cable TV is dying.  Business Insider has a much wider write up of the trend than I did last May.  I happen to be ahead of most curves, though.
2. Things that I have been ahead of the curve on: Bought the first Android phone because I knew Android was going to become the primary global mobile OS; I bought the Windows 7 upgrade, but not W8, because I knew W8 was a lousy interface that made little sense for anything but tablets; I cut my home phone line 7 years ago and went 100% wireless; I dropped cable a decade ago.
3. I got into an online argument, offering that Cover Oregon's hiring of 400 new workers to handle paper and pencil applications would lead to serious breaches of privacy, possibly violating HIPAA.  Sure enough, it's already happened.  Three times, as a matter of fact.
4. KitKat update has come to my Nexus 7.  It turns out, the implementations of Google Now and the home screens aren't quite like that of my Nexus 5 -- this might confuse some folks.  A massive benefit of the KitKat implementation on my phone is the unlimited number of home screens you can create...although obviously navigating a dozen home screens becomes tricky.
5. CGI Global, the same company whose most infamous job is the federal ACA exchange, also built Hawai'i's website, and -- surprise, surprise -- they screwed that one up, too.  CGI is now synonymous with mud.
6. Today The Economist tweeted: "At present Obama will go down in history, alongside Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg" -- "American fears about the future are distorted" -- "America’s economic difficulties are mostly political".  I guess what they're trying to say is that there's a giant iceberg ahead, but when you look closer, it's just an ice cube, and it'll melt soon.
7. You should read Michael Hughes, a HuffPo foreign affairs writer, on Saudi Arabia.  I've never understood why Saudi women aren't allowed to drive, and why they need a guardian in life.
8. I had fun yesterday with the Google Translate app on my tablet.  Spoke a phrase in English and had it translated in spoken Japanese and in written Hiragana.  Some things weren't quite right, though.
9. Sisters of the Road Cafe (downtown Portland) allow you to buy $2 coupons (I'd call them scripts, but they call them coupons) for free meals, that you can give out to homeless people.  I only point this out because KGW covered the program Meals on Wheels which delivers meals to seniors in their homes, whose cost is $3.95 to provide one meal to one senior.  And so, the crazy thought popped in my mind: Why not buy a bunch of Sisters of the Road Cafe meals and deliver them to seniors?
10. Scroll down to the bottom of this Make Magazine post and see the price comparison between different 3D printing companies.  I'd noticed this last year when I was comparing Ponoko with Shapeways.  It's astonishing how wide of a difference 3D printing costs are.

10 thoughts for November 24, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

-- I skipped Sunday --

1. Even the Oregon news media is punishing the Oregon Ducks team for their lackadaisical attitude last week that came back to bite them in the butt.  Take heart, Ducks, that you're not a Beaver.  Although I might have to change that after this week's Civil War game.
2. USC might whip UCLA convincingly this year.  Last year Max Wittek started for Matt Barkley who was out for the rest of the season with his collar bone injury.  Today, we have Cody Kessler playing, and while not perfect, he does not throw the ball 3 feet over and behind a receiver at 150 mph as Wittek did in his three starts last season.  Half the battle is not defeating yourself.  Today, we also have the emergence of a solid defense and a running game.
3. UCLA is consistent.  They've won all the games against equal or lesser competition but stalled against the top competition (Stanford, Oregon, ASU).  That makes them predictable: Needs better talent to win against the top teams.
4. Oil prices were already headed downward.  With the Iran deal announced, prices look to drop even further as oil sanctions are temporarily halted and the markets flood with Iranian oil.  Good news for...January (futures) at the earliest.  That is, unless the pro-Israel lobby stirs up trouble and finds a way to hijack the agreement.
5. The first day of Hanukkah falls on (American) Thanksgiving.  Latkes or kosher turkey or both?
6. Speaking of Thanksgiving, if you love football, you'll have a ton of games to choose from: Texas Tech at Texas, Ole Miss at Mississippi State, Packers at Lions, Raiders at Cowboys, and Steelers at Ravens.  Thanksgiving is a lot like New Years Day, isn't it?
7. If you read everyone's opinions from Iran to US to Israel, it's the hard-right of all sides that are completely against diplomatic solutions.  The ultra-conservative mullahs in Iran are against it; the staunch Jews are against it; the Christian Conservatives are against it.  In other words, the religious right of every country is against diplomacy.
8. I had wondered why the pages of Design Boom and others were filled with so much residential architecture from Japan.  Now I know why.  Kind of makes me want to move to Japan.  Maybe I can convince a friend to do all the communication and we can build homes in Japan from Hawai'i?
9. 3D printing is creeping into the mainstream, slowly but surely.  We're talking nascent steps, because the real progress comes in a year or two when several patents expire making stereolithography a potent mainstream technology that is affordable.
10. Laugh at this cultofmac quote: "If you criticize Apple harshly, they will never so much as return your emails for the rest of your career. But if you criticize Google harshly, and the next day request a Nexus 5 review unit, they’ll cheerfully overnight it to you like you never said anything." -- I'm telling you, you're cheering for the wrong team, if you're a fan of Apple.

Strong support for the Iran-US nuclear deal.

The deal of a generation

I'm with Slate's Fred Kaplan on this one.  It's a win-win for everyone, and does nothing what cynical critics are suggesting it does.  Namely, the plan does not allow Iran to enrich during the next 6 months.  According to the White House fact sheet:

• Iran will dilute any near-20% uranium stock down to 5% or otherwise make it incapable of being weaponized -- echos of the US - Russia Megatons to Megawatts program.
• No enrichment over 5%.
• 3.5% uranium stockpile cannot be increased during the 6 month period.
• No installation of new centrifuges.
• No use of next-generation centrifuges.
• No new construction of enrichment facilities.
• No new centrifuge production beyond what is needed to replace damaged ones.
• Half of installed centrifuges at Natanz and 75% at Fordow must be left inoperable.
• Stop Arak reactor work.
• Provide daily access to IAEA inspectors at Natanz and Fordow.
• Expand access to Arak reactor.

Contrary to what cynical conservatives have said, the agreement sets Iran's weaponization abilities back, with the reversal of near-20% stocks back to 5%, and the halting of enrichment work towards that 20% goal.  If you read the information carefully, yes, Iran is allowed to enrich...to 3.5% to maintain stock.  They're worse off 6 months from now, if Iran were pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

All about the Non-Proliferation Treaty

Under the NPT, Iran, as any other nation, has a right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.  The portion that Iran has not acquiesced to, that has the US, Israel and everyone else up in arms about, is the lack of transparency and cooperation required -- safeguards -- by the NPT to enforce it.  This is the primary conflict: Because Iran had not accepted oversight on all of its enrichment work, others saw as an active nuclear weapons program -- if, after all, you're not doing anything bad, why be sneaky?

The failures of Conservatives

So what do conservatives have, to gripe about?  Did they really expect Iran to dismantle its entire nuclear program?  When you understand that some of these critics -- John Bolton, anyone? -- are a bunch of hypocritical jerks who failed in their North Korea engagement, why should we listen to them?

Let's look at that North Korea issue for a moment.  Remember that it was under President Bill Clinton that we had a framework with North Korea, by which, for the first time IAEA was able to inspect and monitor NK's facilities, which were halted in its goal of nuclear weaponization.  And it was the Bush Administration that, post-9/11, labeled Iran and NK as part of the "Axis of Evil", whereupon all that was built up in the Clinton Administration was dismantled.  NK promptly discarded verification protocols and restarted its weaponization program.  It turns out, poking people in the eye doesn't make them more amenable to you.

This is what I do know: President Obama may have just played a major role in the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria and shutting down Iran's nuclear weapons program.  These two, once intractable global issues are on their way towards suitable resolution, serving as counterpoint to the ineptness of conservative wonks in the world of diplomacy.

10 thoughts for November 23, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. It's officially out: Nexus 5 (and Nexus 4 and 2013 Nexus 7) wireless charger.  Picking up on something I mentioned the other day, other Qi-compatible chargers have restricted 1000mA output or lower.  This official charger has 1800mA output.
2. Oregon Ducks just blew it.  When USC beat Stanford last week, Oregon had a second life to get back into the PAC-12 Championship game and a slim chance to get into the BCS NC game.  They completely blew it down in Tuscon.  Hey, who knew that the Ducks defense was incapable of defending the read-option, the same offense their team runs?!?  Well there you go: Josh Huff got his wish and Oregon won't be in the Rose Bowl (or any other BCS bowl.)
3. The PAC-12 Championship game is already set: ASU v. Stanford.  It doesn't matter if Arizona beats ASU or ND beats Stanford next week.  It's a rematch of an early conference game that ASU lost.  I was really hoping that USC and Oregon met in the PAC-12 Championship.
4. USC's Soma Vainuku has now blocked three punts and delivered one of the biggest hits in college football this year (against Oregon State)...and he's a fullback.  If you watch USC's games, their biggest run gains have been from the tailback following Vainuku.  He finished the Colorado game with a 52 yard run.  If you watched his high school highlight reel, he was quite the bowling ball rolling down hill -- you don't arm tackle him as the Buff players tried to do.  Special player who'll make it to the NFL.
5. On that USC - Colorado game: When was the last time you saw the head ref explain every non-foul?  The PAC-12 refs are certainly feeling the heat for the rash of missed calls this year.
6. USC is now 6 - 1 since Ed Orgeron took over.  To reiterate: If he beats UCLA, the search is over, in my mind.  That's quite the incentive for Trojans to leave nothing on the field, don't you think?  It could be a huge blowout.
7. US and Iran reach a historic deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program.  Huge.  Avoids military intervention.  Did I mention huge?
8. Some Republicans are so cynical that they've taken to Twitter to discount a historic deal between the US and Iran to freeze their push to build a nuclear weapon.  In some fairyland world, these Republicans believe that all solutions come at the end of a military strike.
9. China has declared its right to defend the airspace over the disputed Senkaku Islands.  Figures.  They'll spend hundreds of millions to defend the airspace of the disputed territory, but practically nothing on the typhoon victims in the Philippines.  Ikea has pledged more to the Philippines than China -- talk about embarrassing.
10. Gizmodo suggests signing up for the free trial of Amazon Prime during the holiday shopping season, to get free 2-day shipping, plus free Amazon Video streaming.  IDK though...I don't usually buy gifts for other people from Amazon.

10 thoughts for November 22, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. Here we go.  I just got an Evernote email telling me that, because my email address was listed in the Adobe accounts list that was hacked into and stolen, that I should review my current password.  No issue because I did not use the same password for Evernote.  But, I did  use that password for other sites, so I just spent the last hour going through those other sites and changing them to complex, unique ones.
2. One by one, Hawai'i counties are moving to ban open GMO ag.  That is, GMO will be restricted to enclosed structures, to avoid cross-pollination with non-GMO plants.  Accidental cross-pollination is a common problem and impossible to stop if you have open air plantings. 
3. Google Docs' text editor now allows you to edit styles...sort of.  You still can't bring in named styles when you import documents and you still can't rename them, and you still can't explicitly edit them.  Maybe in another 5 years, it'll be usable for large documents.  Until then, I'm mostly using Docs to take notes and compose short pieces that don't require much formatting, if any.
4. There's been a surge in applications for the ACA.  Or, exactly as was expected by looking at the history of Romneycare.  It turns out, most people are motivated by deadlines -- see the post office on April 15th.
5. Speaking of the ACA, apparently John Boehner took to tweeting about his travails in trying to register for coverage -- congressional members and their staff, by choice of Republicans, are required to use the ACA healthcare exchanges, don't ask me why.  Apparently he was properly signed up, but he hadn't tweeted about it, nor has he tweeted about how much he's paying.  You'd think someone who was angry at the ACA would be tweeting about his massive price hike.  Oh wait...maybe that's why he's gone silent: His coverage is actually affordable for a 64 year old smoker.
6. On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, news organizations relived the events, as if they had unfolded in real time, today.  I can tell you now, on the 50th anniversary of 9/11, you can count me out.  I'm not one to relive trauma.
7. The one and only time I think pit bulls are cute, are when they're puppies under the age of 6 months.  But dogs with short hair don't stay cute when they get older -- as adults, short hair dogs look like crew cut marines.  That's why I've never been attracted to pugs and bulldogs either.
8. The weather prediction for Boulder, CO during game time of the USC - Colorado game, is ~60% chance of snow.  I think the Los Angeles kids will just love it, even if it's 25°F during the game.  USC 35 - Colorado 10.
9. A follow up to the news that Winamp was going away.  Part of AOL's closure of Nullsoft also means that Shoutcast is going offline.  So tonight I found two alternatives to Shoutcast: Icecast and TuneIn.com.  I signed up for TuneIn because they have a nice Android app, so at least I have my streaming radio stations available.
10. I'm not sure why people continue to shop Black Friday.  I don't think it's that small of a secret anymore, but you can get really awesome deals online every week from sites such as 1Sale.com, Dailysteals.com and Woot.com.  And you don't need to knock down a single person or camp out overnight to get these deals.

10 thoughts for November 21, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. Democrats made good on a threat to change the filibuster (vote for cloture), so that it only applies to legislative bills and Supreme Court nominees.  It interestingly, gives back more power to the Executive branch, and reduces the minority party of the Legislative branch of federal government.  There is one particular way that this could come back to haunt Democrats: A Republican in the White House makes a cynical nomination to his / her cabinet, a person who is against enforcing the rules that he / she is being selected to enforce, and a Republican-controlled Senate confirms this appointment.  For instance, a big-oil person in charge of the EPA.
2. By the way, ABC News (network news) got its story about the filibuster wrong.  The filibuster used by Republicans isn't like that which you saw in Mr. Smith goes to Washington.  The filibuster Mr. Smith did, is still available, a la Rand Paul standing up for hours talking on the Senate floor about NSA spying.  What was changed was the cloture rules to end debate, to proceed to a straight up or down vote.  Republicans, were they inclined to do so, can still stand up for hours on end, talking, to block a nominee if they wish.
3. Righting a wrong, no matter how late, is always welcomed.  But what about punishing those who knowingly provide false witness?
4. Patent reform has been watered down by...Microsoft.  Which, shouldn't be a surprise, because they're partly responsible for one of the largest nonpracticing entity patent trolls around: Rockstar BIDCO.  And if we're talking evil spawns of Microsoft, there's also Nathan Myhrvold and his NPE Intellectual Ventures, patent troll.  I say the law should be changed, such that any NPE either must use their patents to build something, or else lose it forever to the common good.
5. Watching old shows, it seems to me that they used to mostly deal with absolute values of right and wrong.  Nowadays, your enemy one day can easily become your ally the next, and the back again.  The NBC show Revolution comes to mind.
6. I might have over-committed myself to working on more projects than I can handle for the next several months.  You know what this means: The economy is getting hot.
7. You know what's throwing the whole gaming market upside down?  Mobile operating systems.  It may not quite seem like it, but Android and iOS are the now and future of gaming, and Android will become the platform of choice.
8. I confirmed: Most Oregon Duck fans were watching the USC - Stanford game and cheering big for the Trojans.
9. What's better than a sunny day?  A cold, sunny day!  Hot, sunny days makes one feel like staying in the shade or sitting in an air-conditioned room.  A cloudy, hot day is just as bad as a cold, cloudy day.  But the cold, sunny day is the perfect porridge.  This week, it's cold and sunny in Portland.
10.  Last night I saw on the news that in Multnomah County, if you take your pet to get a rabies vaccine, the vet is required to report your name to the county who then back checks to see if you've gotten a pet license.  It's not that expensive.  Note though, that at the time of the ordinance's passage, veterinarians were against it.  It isn't that hard to understand why: People will either stop bringing their pets in to get rabies vaccines, or will go outside the county to get vaccines for their pets.  Why did county commissioners pass this ordinance?  Money.

10 thoughts for November 20, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. The EFF has updated its Who Has Your Back list with issues of encryption.  Dropbox, Google, SpiderOak and Sonic.net come out on top.  No surprise that ATT, Comcast and Verizon are at the bottom, but then again you didn't expect them to take web encryption seriously, since they don't have much of a presence on the internet as others do.  Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo and Apple, on the other hand, do have major presence and interactions on the internet, but offer limited encryption.
2. Speaking of Microsoft's limited support for encrypting data and protecting you -- not just from questionable government snooping but also from hackers -- they're not selling wares highlighting what irony is.  (Via The Verge)
3. WinAmp is shutting down.  Boo.  Hurry up and download the last version of WinAmp before it goes dark!  A part of me believes that an open source version of WinAmp will eventually find its way into the world -- either that or VLC will have to step up and become even more than what it already is.
4. Here's one issue that has widespread bipartisan support: Ignore Israel.  People are tired of the perpetual red lines drawn by Bibi against Iran, and no one in the US -- except for a few, isolated hawks -- wants to get involved in yet another military intervention.
5. The SF DA tells us that US mobile phone carriers rejected a plan by Samsung to build a kill switch into smart phones and other devices...because they make too much money off of handset insurance.  This is usually about the time that the DOJ steps in with allegations of monopolistic practices to harm the consumer, right?
6. Google mashed Play Magazines and Currents to create... Play Newsstand.  Meh.  It's nice and all, but they wiped out all of my magazines that I had temporarily stored on my tablet, so I have to go back and save them back onto my tablet.  That wasn't very nice.
7. Google's Wallet (prepaid debit) Card is now available.  If you link it to your bank, you get free transfers; if you link it to your credit card / other debit card, transfers cost you 2.9% -- in other words, Google isn't going to be on the hook for your credit / debit card's fees.  In practice, it's an extension of having a Starbucks account, then either using your phone app or SB card to pay for drinks / food / gifts, then reloading it.
8. Have you heard of the LG G Flex?  It's a phone with a back surface material that "heals" from cuts and nicks.  What also makes it different, is that it is flexible enough that you can push down on its back to flatten the otherwise curved phone, and it won't break.  I don't really see the benefits of being just modestly flexible, but it's obviously a step towards much greater flexible electronics.
9. Big supporter of the ACA and its finer points, but I've never understood Cover Oregon's advertising tactic.  We've seen hundreds of ads with a catchy tune, but not a single ad explaining why people should sign up.  The first several times they aired their ads, I had no clue what the ad was about.  
10. Speaking of Cover Oregon's questionable advertising tactic, I can't believe that they've had a website available for months -- remember this post from May? -- ahead of the Oct. 1 exchange opening, but that they haven't been able to turn HTTPS on, at the very least, let alone giving people the ability to sign up online.

10 thoughts for November 19, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. I use five cloud storage / file sync services -- they're all running in the background and reside in my notifications bar in Win7, and I have apps for all of them on my smart phone and tablet.  The highest amount of free storage I'm getting, is 51GB from Tresorit, followed by 50GB from Box.  That may seem like a lot, but I've got quite a few presentation and design files that are 50MB each.  I'm trying not to be a clutter bug, so I've tried deleting older files that have little value.  But then, the trail of design disappears.
2. When tornadoes hit in the late Fall and Winter, it's a rarity and they make reconstruction difficult.  You have to protect poured concrete above freezing, and you can't paint below 50°F.  But heck, if it's cold and wet, then you can't close up walls, else you trap moisture and create mold in homes.  You can't plant trees either, because the ground is frozen.
3. So I compared a Moto X and my Nexus 5 side by side.  I think the Nexus 5 looks far better.  It's thinner and it has exceptionally cleaner lines.  With the white back, it reminds me of thin mints.  I used to think that my GS-II was nice enough, but the Nexus 5 is drop dead gorgeous.
4. Apple fanbois could not believe that Android tablets have surged and vastly outsold the iPad.  So they're now pointing to a one of their own, who writes that Android TV stick sales in Asia, driven by pirated content, is responsible for this surge.  Here are a few problems with their hypothesis: The top tablets for sale at Amazon are all Androids, device sales tracking firms all say that Android tablets are surging, and we now know that Android tablet revenue exceeds iPads.  But you know, most people only accept explanations that conform to their bias.  The 2012 elections come to mind.
5. By the way, these Apple fanbois point to Chitika's data showing 84% usage of web traffic held by iPads, as proof that most of the devices showing up as Android tablet sales are TV sticks, because these sticks don't typically browse the internet.  Here's the logical fallacy (or a clear ignorance of the data): Chitika only tracks from a limited set of 300K websites in North America.  You can't create a narrative about explosive Android TV sticks from pirated web content posing as Android tablets in Asia, if the basis of your proof is ad traffic from North America.
6. Please, feel free to find one of those 300K websites using Chitika.  I tried.  I have zero stored cookies from them, and none of the dozen popular domains I visited used Chitika.  I tried searching for websites that used Chitika, but instead I found, somewhat humorously, this ZDNet post about why you shouldn't trust the data coming out of Chitika.
7. I have my suspicion that one reason why Chitika's data seems bad, is because it is an advertising company.  If you compare their data to pure research companies such as StatCounter, there is   Mobile / in-app ads served up from tablets and smart phones from the Android ecosystem, would probably result in undercounting from developers using Google's AdSense and DoubleClick, not Chitika.  Inherently, Chitika's data would therefore exclude much of the largest ecosystem.
8. Apparently even online dating sites practice unsafe password storage.
9. Looks like Ed Orgeron's recruiting job has gotten easier by his on the field success.
10. Former President Bush was very gracious on the Tonight Show, saying that he felt it was unfair to criticize his successor because it was detrimental to the country.  If you can find it, he's completely loose and very clear.  Which all seems to me to mean that he had really lousy speech writers when he was in the White House.  I like him a lot better now than when he was in the Oval Office, that's for sure.  It's an awful shame he didn't express this same level of clarity and humor while in office.  And he's a fairly good painter, too.  Really, you should watch his interview...he's not the same guy.

10 thoughts for November 18, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. "Honestly, I'm a little old-fashioned", doesn't seem like an appropriate way to open your ad about a Windows tablet.  Or maybe I'm a little old-fashioned, and a fat, bearded, middle-aged guy really is chic -- the future of targeted ads for computing?
2. Speaking of the Surface 2 ad, you know what's creepy about it?  The claim that one "can use Bing Smart Search to find anything in the world including last night's homework" implies that Bing catalogs school websites so that you can find what you need.
3. New TV shows I like, include: Sleepy Hollow, Almost Human, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and The Blacklist.  Shows that I'm not all that interested in anymore, include: 2 Broke Girls, Mike and Molly, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles.
4. Speaking of new shows, I can't see how Sleepy Hollow and The Blacklist will last beyond a couple of years or three, because their shows are hamstrung by their stories.  Still, they're fun to watch.
5. Shows that I continue to love: Grimm, Castle, Person of Interest, The Big Bang Theory, The Neighbors, and Revolution, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, Misfits (only on Hulu in the US) and The Simpsons.
6. A show that ends this year and I will miss: Warehouse 13.  I love Sci-Fi, but I really enjoy the quirky characters in this show more than anything else.
7. Bitcoins were validated by the DOJ and FBI at a Senate committee hearing today.  It's not the meaning that you think it means, though.  Bitcoins are a payment / exchange system, not a true currency, even though, many people have taken to it as if it were a commodity such as gold.  Such as it is, the value shot up to $800.  These people don't seem to understand that by using it as a speculative investment vehicle, they're destroying its viability as a means of trade -- volatile inflation and deflation is never good, unless you know how to profit from it.
8. Thank goodness we -- and by we, I mean the world -- have Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford.  (Too bad for Toronto residents, though.)  Watch this video of him going off the deep end on what seems like a drug-fueled rage.  Watch this live interview where he goes off the deep end again, with even more vulgar language.  And he follows up with admitting that he's driven drunk.  Apparently schools have cancelled visits to City Hall, out of concern that he'll be there and go off the deep end.  What a train wreck!
9. How unfortunate that the Trayvon Martin jury failed to convict George Zimmerman, who just can't seem to keep out of trouble ever since then.  Now, he's allegedly pointed a gun at his girlfriend.  This time, he barricaded the door with furniture, and reacted calmly when police entered through the barricade.
10. Bear with me a bit on this one.  I think no-kill shelters are great.  But here in Oregon (and probably everywhere else around the nation) there's been an explosion of nonprofit, no-kill shelters not named a member of the Humane Society.  Some of these places are converted homes, and their proprietors have all sorts of intrusive demands, from seeing your income to viewing the inside of your home, and often have clawback clauses that allow them to take back your adopted pet if you violate some rule.  I've seen some dogs sit in these shelters for over a year.  I think these people, well-meaning as they may be, have a hero / mother complex, and feel that it is their duty in life to protect all animals.

2013 Christmas card design sneak peek.

I decided to change things up this year and produce my Christmas cards through Moo.com, rather than laboring through them (designing, printing, cutting) at the last minute and sending them out too late to make it in time.  The big incentive was Moo's 25% off, but the deadline was 11:59 pm, Sunday night, and so I spent some time thinking about it, sketching it out, then drawing it in Illustrator.

Not only does it make my life easier, but Moo's prints are spectacular, and they use excellent paper (stickers, meh, not so much).

So, to celebrate the first time in decades that I've actually done something early, here's a sneak peek of my diptych.

10 thoughts for November 17, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. Watch this video.
2. USC returned to the polls, #23 in the AP and #25 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll.  Recruits are excited.  Fans are thrilled.  We'll have to wait until the end of the season, but Ed Orgeron's already got a big stamp of approval by a majority of folks.  Win out and it'll be unanimous.
3. Coincidentally, while USC went preseason #1 in 2012 to out of the polls, and now back into the polls this weekend, Notre Dame has gone from finishing the regular 2012 season at #1 to a final ranking of #3 (AP) / #4 (USA Today), to 2013 preseason #14 (AP) / #11 (USA Today), to being unranked since last week's loss to Pitt.  I strongly think USC could and should have beaten ND in South Bend.
4. On Carson Palmer's resurrected career: I know it's against the worst team in the NFL, but today Palmer was 30 of 42 for 419 yards and 2 touchdowns.  That's impressive in its own right.
5. That fasting diet (calorie limiting to 1/4 normal adult daily intake) might seem like a means to lose weight to most people.  The real appeal is in how it changes your blood chemistry to keep diabetes away, and pushes your body off from growth mode to repair mode.
6. Speaking of growth mode, this is why you don't take hormones (hormone replacement therapy / HRT) in old age, and why focusing on living longer through cellular regeneration is probably misplaced..  Primary focus, when it comes to aging, should be to fix DNA that goes awry, as tough of a job that will be.
7. There's an active volcano under the Antarctic Ice.  Wouldn't it be crazy if, in the future, they discover that it's one of those rare volcanoes capable of effecting global climate change?
8. Because my Nexus 5 is Qi Wireless capable, I've been looking online for a wireless charger. Some are rated less than 1000mA, which means it'll take very long to charge your device.  Even at 1000mA, that's less than what you'd normally get from a plug-in charger.  What a trade-off, huh?
9. With the next generation Nexus 7 (2013) model out, the pogo plug docks have dropped in price.  Definitely gonna get one.
10. Comet ISON is nearing its rendezvous with the Sun, and it's now bright enough to see with the naked eye.......if you're camping out in the middle of nowhere.  You'll still need binoculars if you're in the city.  Of course, because it's nearing the Sun, it also means that you'll only be able to see it just before the Sun rises, early in the morning -- near Mercury if you're looking.  If it survives its perihelion approach, then the time between the sun rise and visibility will increase and could be bright enough to match that of the most visible planets.  As always, I use heavens-above to track where ISON is, and how bright it is, among other objects in the sky.

10 thoughts for November 16, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's my way of getting a bunch of them out of my head, without taking the whole day to write long form.

1. Yesterday property taxes were due (postmark / mail-by date).  I was expecting a jump, but there wasn't any.  Still, because of the structure of taxes in Oregon, our property taxes are easily 4~6x higher than other places, including Hawai'i, and it leads some to believe that Oregon has a high tax burden.  But it isn't true.  A look at the conservative Tax Foundation's metrics for 2010 (latest available data) shows that Oregon (10.0%) is 16th in the nation in total tax burden rates, below #14 Hawai'i (10.1%).  If you calculate that per capita, Oregon is #29 while Hawai'i is #15.
2. I've started compiling some data from my game play with Line Corp's Poko Pang, and it's obvious that there's nothing random about your odds of summoning animals.  Here's an example: 41 summons and 11 of them were the same character, Tytoni.  I've long figured out that there's nothing random about a lot of things in their games, but animal summons in Poko Pang is easily tracked and displayed -- will do so next month or so, after another 20 summons or so.
3. I don't get the point of most animated GIFs.  People will grab video clips then put them through an app that converts them to an animated GIF.  But the result is a file that is larger than the original video clip at the same resolution.  So the people who end up watching the GIF have to wait longer than the original video.  That's pointless, no?
4. Dude, Duke Blue Devils have beaten the Miami Hurricanes in football!  That's quite the turnaround of fortunes.  I mean, Duke has often sat at the bottom of the FBS for the last two decades, and this year they've turned it completely around to take over first place of the ACC Coastal division.
5. PAC-12 officials must be pro-Stanford fans.  This image captures it all.  It was obviously short and should have been called a 4th down, but it was called a first down.  The play was inconsequential as Stanford couldn't move the ball after that play and had to punt.  However, later in the game, everyone including the TV commentators could not believe that the refs refused to call a Stanford player for running into the punter.  Then, they followed up by failing to call an obvious blow to the head area by the tackler on Dion Bailey's interception return -- and here I thought the refs were supposed to focus on blows to the head to prevent concussions.
6. I hope no one forgets how Ed Orgeron and the team trusted that kicker Andre Heidari would hit the game-winning field goal, despite his recent woes.
7. Tonight the Oregon Ducks are huge Trojan fans, I think, now that Oregon is back in the driver's seat of the PAC-12. BUT...there is a very possible scenario where USC could end up in the PAC-12 Championship game and play Oregon.
8. Ed Orgeron may have just won over his critics, to become the permanent head coach of the USC Trojans.  The team is playing as a team and the energy is absolutely amazing.  If they win out, I'm almost certain that AD Pat Haden will have no choice but to make Ed Orgeron's position permanent.
9. I had a conversation with some folks last week, and I pointed out that the 80s was quite unstable with the USSR and the Cold War still going on, barely coming out of the Iran revolutionary coup, and of course the crazy inflation and interest rate spike and recession.  And yet, it had some of the happiest music: Rock Lobster, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and so on.  Modern music isn't quite nearly as aloof and silly as it was back in the 80s.
10. I just can't bring myself to tune in to the Hunger Games thing, just as I couldn't bring myself to catch the Twilight bandwagon.  It might be that I'm getting old and can't deal with teenie-targeted films.  But with the Hunger Games, I just can't let go of the fact that it is a copy of the themes from the Japanese Battle Royale.

10 thoughts for November 15, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. Earlier this week I wrote (see item #10) that the idea of paying for only what you need in health insurance, is a rather dumb argument, because it negates the point of pooled money.  Today, Jonathan Chait breaks this whole thing down to demonstrate that, absent pooled money, all you're basically doing is getting charged by an insurer to take your money then pay it back later on.  Consider: If exactly half the population no longer needs to pay money into a pool to help offset the cost of child birth, now one half of the population must bear double the cost of what they were paying before.  Fewer mothers would want children, and so on.  It's a self-destructive feedback loop.
2. Democratic reaction to the ACA issues perfectly illustrates the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate.  House members are continuously working on defending their seats because of their two year terms and gerrymandering of their district borders, while Senators have six year terms and aren't affected by gerrymandering as they represent the whole state.
3. The House passed a bill that would effectively delay the ACA for an entire year, by allowing insurers to sell old plans to old and new customers for the next year.  Because the bill would allow insurers to sell old plans to new customers, it is a non-starter with most Democrats.  Why, after all, did they spend all this political capital only to allow insurers to continue to scam people with lousy plans?  However, it must be said that some of the better providers -- Kaiser -- would probably ignore this, and simply move to 100% ACA plans.  There is a very solid, moral foundation for keeping Americans healthy and productive, regardless of risk.
4. You really need to read the online Politico Magazine, a long form tradition of print, for the internet.  It is written by people from all colors of the political spectrum, so there's going to be something interesting for everyone -- I've already read three articles from the November magazine.  If you look carefully, they have a digital magazine layout version, and a downloadable PDF for offline reading in print-like format.
5. Prudential Northwest Properties was apparently bought out last year by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.  I didn't notice this until today, because today, the Pru-nw.com site was redirected to bhhsnw.com -- Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Northwest Real Estate (whew, that was long).
6. And of course, the reason why I was accessing a real estate website, was to search for large, cheap, empty parcels of land in rural Oregon.  Like this one.  Kind of nice, with a sweeping view of snow-capped mountains near John Day Fossil Bed Monument.  Extra money?  Why not buy some empty land, then build a couple of rustic cabins and rent them out for vacationers?  Or if you can find really cheap land, use it as a private campsite for yourself and your friends.  I'm all about isolation...well except for the lack of internet -- I couldn't do blog posts or work remotely.  This one's 20 acres near Goldendale, WA, and costs just $27,000.   Buy it so that during Summer, you can camp outside and watch the Milky Way, meteor showers, the northern lights and more.
7. Been watching season 5 of Misfits.  A lot of crazy turns this season, and some really uncomfortable topics for some people!
8. Damn, Pinterest. Why are you clogging my screen with stuff that I didn't sign up to see?  I don't see the point then, of following boards, if you're going to clutter my screen with pins from people I haven't a clue who they are, with things I have zero interest in repinning.
9. This season's Grimm is absolutely, freaking awesome!  I love the implications of his current "powers" and the complexity of his conscience.
10. All the odds makers have Stanford as the favorite, but many sports pundits are picking USC as the upset special this weekend.  This I know: The last three straight losses to Stanford were under Lane Kiffin's coaching, but under Ed Orgeron the energy is back and confidence is soaring.  Under the bright lights in a sold-out Coliseum, there's a lot of incentive to pull a major upset on national TV.

10 thoughts for November 14, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. Boy, did I get this speculative critique spot on, two weeks ago or what?  Now just wait for the stories of irony to come our way over the next year.  It's a big error, if you ask me, to allow people to cling to old plans that are remarkably lousy.  The common criticism is that people are rational consumers -- if this were true, people wouldn't horde and we would have efficient markets.  Therefore, many people most of the time are really lousy at proper rationalization, and this behavior does not exclude intelligent people.
2. Google finally won its right -- pending appeals, that is -- to scan books and offer snippets online to people.  Why'd it take so long?  It's not like the basis of the scanning changed in the last five years.
3. I've never heard of a team being .500 past the halfway mark in a season, but having never won a single game at home.  But that's where the Philadelphia Eagles are at.  Is that weird or what?
4. Speaking of the NFL, winners: Carson Palmer's rejuvenated career at Arizona (good for $4M total this year -- cha-ching!); Andy Reid and Alex Smith producing the only undefeated team in the NFL; the NFC West where the worst team -- St. Louis -- has the best record of any bottom team in any division at 4-6; New Orleans don't-call-it-a-comeback now that coach Sean Payton is back from his year-long ban; Nick Foles, whose play has probably made most Eagles fans forget about that guy named Vick, and Chip demurring over who the starter will be once that guy named Vick is healthy again.
5. Speaking of winners, here are the NFL's losers: Atlanta has gone from nearly the best last year to nearly the worst this year; Mike Shanahan looks like a fool this year for keeping RG III in the playoff game against Seattle last January, as RG III just hasn't been himself ever since his torn ACL as a result from playing in that game; Mark Sanchez is not only one of the least liked players, but with the Jets above .500, he's definitely gone in 2014; Minnesota seems like it has traded team personnel with Seattle ever since Pete Carroll's arrival in Emerald City, only to end up 2-7 this year.
6. Thought about this contradiction the other day: When there is downward economic pressure, companies ask employees to share the burden by lowered wages (what conservative economists refer to as efficient markets with rational actors), but when there is upward economic pressure, suddenly owners and management insist that risk-taking should be rewarded at the top, leading to the current wage disparity gap we have.  If there is shared pain going down, why isn't shared gain going up, a clear, reciprocal action?
7. Went to college with Blake Oshiro, Deputy Chief of Staff of Governor Neal Abercrombie of Hawai'i.  Knew him since middle school via band, even though he was in Pearl City.  Better man than me, for sure.
8. The new Kia Soul ads with the buffed out hamsters look a lot like a certain camel.  Well, not exactly, but it feels like the same theme...minus the penis head inference, that is.
9. I've been following George Takei on Twitter for a month or so now...he really makes me laugh.  Love his collaboration with AARP on his TakeisTake YouTube channel too.
10. Got a cold all this week, thanks to a client's kid.  Bleh.  I try my best to avoid getting sick by wiping down baskets at the market and avoid crowds.  I hate getting sick.  Dammit.  I don't often get sick...maybe once every other year.

10 thoughts for November 13, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. The Tea Party's leaders have been trying to crash the federal government.  Meanwhile an Occupy offshoot has been using donations to buy out Americans' medical debt and cancel them.  One group seems to me to be taking America to the brink of destruction while the other is helping those who aren't "winners" by capitalistic standards.  I like the second group a lot more.
2. Creative destruction: Prepaid wireless companies offering all-you-can-use plans for half the price of post-paid wireless.
3. Are you right or left brain dominant or balanced (balanced means no one side is greater than 30%)?  Take this test and then this one, to see.  (Left brain = analytical / language, right brain = creative.) The second test has more meaningful analysis involved.
4. We now produce more oil than we import.  Prices are falling.  The two are not fully correlated.  Firstly, demand matters.  North American demand for petroleum is now about what it was in 1998.  Secondly, oil is global, thus despite that petroleum production boom, we now export thrice as much petroleum as we did in 2008.  Rather than directly lowering prices, excess product goes to highest bidder. (Yes, those links go to my charts from publicly available data (EIA).)
5. Funny how a lot of sites and apps have popped up, replicating the background noise of a coffee shop.  Here's one, two, three, four, five means of getting your coffee shop backgrounds.  Such noise is supposed to increase your concentration.  Oddly enough, when I'm at the cafe, I put my headphones on to drown out the noise.  There's more to the ambiance than background sound, IMO.
6. I increased the longevity of my battery's charge in my Nexus 5, by switching out the Java machine from Dalvik (standard) to ART (Android Run Time).  You can only do this with Kit Kat, and you need to enable developer options on your device.  Big difference, believe me.  I went from my battery lasting 3/4 of a day, to lasting at least 24 hours (it reached about 59% after 24 hours, and I decided to throw it on the charger, anyway).
7. Moto X customization is now available to all major US carriers.  But here comes Moto G, and it costs just $180 off contract (full price)!  The down side is that it ships with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), but it is guaranteed to be upgraded to 4.4 Kit Kat.  I'd consider this a sideways upgrade from my GS-II, were I to have waited.  But my Nexus 5 is a bigger, higher resolution screen, packed with Qi Wireless charging ability, and Kit Kat already built in.
8. 3D printers are awesome.  Here come the 3D scanners.  You know you want one, too.  It'll probably make 3D modeling a lot easier, by scanning in objects you already own.
9. comScore data shows that Google's US search market share has been steady for the last three months at 66.9%.  While Google's market share is off its high of 67.5% from this past February, it'd be tough to view this as a negative for them, as getting too big might lead to market intervention by the DOJ.  Nonetheless, it's obvious that Bing just ain't cutting it, despite the ad campaigns against Google.
10. Speaking of Google, Android is absolutely the de facto operating system of mobile.  People love to point to profits of Apple, but I'll bet anyone that Apple would wish that Android wasn't the dominant system, and that Apple's ecosystem was.  On a side note: When people exclaim that Windows Phone is witnessing phenomenal growth of 156%, try to remember that this is about WP going from 2% to 3.6% -- we're talking small potatoes here.   With the move to make Nokia a division of Microsoft, this number is inevitably going to flat line in the next year or two as outside partners will stop building WP phones.  

10 thoughts for November 11, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. Good for Facebook, being proactive and scanning the Adobe password list that was stolen and exposed on the internet.  According to Brian Krebs, Facebook is actively notifying its users who use the same password for Facebook as they did for Adobe.  When you get lazy, you use the same password, so even if you change your password for Adobe, someone can try that old password with all the popular services out there -- something to think about, considering that Adobe said that 38M accounts were compromised, but as Krebs noted, the number of both active and inactive accounts is 150M, and a lot of people who no longer use Adobe might be vulnerable.
2. Wow, USC Trojans football is surging back!  Did you see that shellacking of the Cal Bears on Saturday, up in Berkeley?  The Trojans returned three punts for touchdowns -- two by Agholor on returns, and one blocked, recovered and run into the end zone by Josh Shaw.  That was the most complete game this season, and perhaps in the last three years, coming off a great game up in Corvallis against Oregon State.  If Orgeron wins out, he'll be USC's permanent coach, for sure.
3. So I got my Nexus 5 last week and have been enjoying using it and all of its features.  Very cool stuff.  I'll post more about it later, especially photos using the Nexus 5's included camera software.
4. CBS News is being trashed for its inadequate apology regarding its false reporting on 60 Minutes two weeks ago, over Benghazi.  The report set off a firestorm among conservatives, but it was based entirely on a witness who lied about what happened.  Either he lied to Lara Logan, or he lied to his bosses and to the FBI.  The critique of the Right over MSM (mainstream media) is ironic: the bias, it turns out, is slanted towards conservatives, not against them.  Without a more comprehensive explanation about what went wrong, a lot of Americans will end up trusting MSM -- specifically CBS -- even less.
5. Amazon is going to offer geographically-limited deliveries on Sundays, in conjunction with the USPS.  Makes perfect sense if you ask me.  Why would you want to cut back service, rather than expand to create new market partners?  If the USPS cuts back, I would think that it would tend to incentivize Americans to scale back their usage of the USPS.
6. Last week Friday, the monthly BLS employment report came out: October was surprisingly stronger than expected.  If you look at the ADP employment report, there's a contrasting trend.  ADP shows declining hiring, while BLS shows increasing hiring.  Interesting.  I'll probably do a separate post on that later this week.
7. Turning down jobs is the ultimate sign that the economy is back.  That's where we're at.  And by "we", of course I mean "ME".  Really.
8. The Ritchie Incognito / Johnathan Martin / Miami Dolphins imbroglio just got weirder, by a mile.  I watched that Jay Glazer interview Sunday because I was watching the Seattle - Atlanta game, so I heard about this supposedly threatening text message Martin had sent to Incognito.  Except, it was a meme with a photo.  So, Incognito comes out looking like a half-truth asshole, now.
9. Typhoon Haiyan might be the strongest storm ever recorded (lowest pressure).  If so, the previous record was recorded in 1979.  If we get a cluster of these record-breakers, there can't be any doubt left that we're stuck with global warming for the foreseeable future.
10. The absolute dumbest argument against the ACA: Paying for services that one doesn't need or want.  Pooled money means that, even if your plan doesn't have maternity services covered, you're still paying for someone else to have it.  The reason why you're paying more, is because the risk of payout is higher is you want it.  And, the more important issue here, is that the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed nations.  US has 5.9 deaths / 1000 births, Germany has 3.48 / 1000; Japan's is 2.17 / 1000.  Social conservatives often speak about the sanctity of life, so I say support mothers and their children by ensuring that they're covered by health insurance!

Some browser benchmarks.

Google came out with an updated Octane javascript benchmark test, so I thought I'd run my browsers through a few different benchmark tests.  Sorry, I don't use Safari.

Google Octane 2.0 Javascript benchmark (higher is better):

• 17811: Chrome 30.0.1599.101 m
• 15853: Firefox 25
• 6515: Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16721
• 6307: Opera 12.16 build 1860

Sun Spider Javascript benchmark (lower is better):

• 137.6ms: Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16721
• 172.9ms: Chrome 30.0.1599.101 m
• 187.2ms: Firefox 25
• 221.2ms: Opera 12.16 build 1860

HTML5TEST benchmark (higher is better):

• 463: Chrome 30.0.1599.101 m
• 409: Firefox 25
• 404: Opera 12.16 build 1860
• 320: Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16721

10 thoughts for November 7, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. The FDA has officially moved towards a ban on trans-fats from manufactured foods (first comes the proposal then a comment period, and a final ruling).  The writing was always on the wall for trans-fats, which cause clogged arteries.  Which of course means that when many of us switched from butter to margarine in the 70s, we were screwing our future.
2. Tea Party Republicans -- I'm of course speaking of Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli -- have thrown away etiquette and decided that it's okay not to call your opponent after losing.  Up next: Football players will be allowed to give the winning side the finger at the end of the game.
3. The Miami Dolphins team is a mess, from the top on down.  That's nutty that the GM would suggest Martin retaliate by punching him...a team doesn't win by fighting.  Was Martin bullied?  This is what I've learned over the years: It's not what you think, it's what that person thinks.  It's called empathy, and in an alpha-type world, it's not part of the lexicon.
4. Speaking of the Dolphins, somebody please contrast the Dolphins locker room with the Seattle Seahawks'.  The team from the top on down, is focused on being positive, not infighting and demoralizing each other, as it appears the Dolphins organization fosters.
5. The US economy (GDP) expanded at a 2.8% annual (year over year) rate, in Q3.  Of course you know what this means: If we hadn't had that government shutdown, Q4 would have probably matched that 2.8%, but instead, we'll end up with something closer to 2.2~2.5%.  A lot of lost GDP.
6. Tonight's Oregon - Stanford football game could be epic.  It's in Palo Alto, so the home team gets a big nod.  However, Oregon's engines are in overdrive right now, so the game feels like a toss-up, but I'm going with Oregon, 41 - 38.
7. My Nexus 5 comes today.  Per usual, I'm probably going to chase down the UPS driver to grab it early.
8. USC's going to beat Cal on Saturday -- this I have no doubt, after watching the Trojans control both sides of the ball in the second half against Oregon State.  Cal's a pass-happy team, so I fully expect about 4 or 5 interceptions on Saturday.
9. The US Senate, by a 2/3rds ratio, voted to support equal rights in the work place for gay and transgender folks.  This means that about a dozen Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats.  Interesting.
10. There are many conflicting definitions of the Tea Party.  Here's mine: A loosely-associated group of people, antagonistic to the changing demographics of America.  The rise of the Tea Party wasn't a reaction to the NSA snooping or the loss of liberties, but a reaction to an African-American president taking over at the nadir of a major economic downturn.

Stay away from New Mexico!

Here's the gist of the story behind the reason why you should stay away:

Guy gets pulled over by cop for failing to make a complete stop at a stop sign.  When he climbs out of his car, officers think he's clenching his buttocks, so they use a drug dog to search his car and the dog is interested in the driver's seat.  Therefore, officers get a search warrant to probe his anus.

Okay, maybe they had probable cause to get that warrant, but here's what he had to endure:

1. An x-ray revealed no drugs;
2. Fingers inside the anus, still no drugs;
3. Second test with fingers inside the anus, still no drugs;
4. Forced enema and forced defecation in front of officers, still no drugs;
5. Second forced enema and forced defecation in front of officers and still no drugs;
6. Third forced enema and forced defecation in front of officers and still no drugs;
7. Second x-ray, but still no drugs;
8. Sedated and colonoscopy performed throughout his large intestines but no drugs found.

So at what step do you think they would have figured out that there really weren't any drugs in this guy?  It sure looks like he was tortured and humiliated by officers.

Oh, and not only did they perform the anal probes after the warrant expired, but they were done in a county other than the one in which the warrant had been sought for.  You see, the first stop these officers made, was at a hospital where doctors objected to performing such searches.

So you might think that this is a single incident, right?  Well...

Maybe 1 out of 3: Cuccinelli calls it a moral victory?

Terry McAuliffe is a lousy candidate -- he's the guy you need to win elections, but then you have to take a shower, spray yourself with Lysol, wipe yourself down with iodine, then take another shower, just to feel clean again.  He's such a bad candidate that even the liberal Mother Jones has an expose of all the things that make him unqualified to win a big office.  

And yet he won.

As a matter of fact, Democrats took both Governor (since 2010) and Lt. Governor (since 2006) in Virginia away from Republicans.  Right now, the Attorney General race is statistically -- as in 0.013% separation -- tied, but if Democrat Mark Herring is able to win, it'd be the first time since 1994 that a Democrat was Virginia's Attorney General.

So one way of interpreting this, is to say that the Tea Party wave election of 2010 is in the process of being wiped out.  Another way of interpreting this, according to Ken Cuccinelli, is that it was a moral victory for the Tea Party.

You can keep all the moral victories you want, although it looks more like confusion on the part of the Tea Party about what elections are about.

Republican hypocrisy.

I had to laugh at this.  House Ways and Means Committee chair, Dave Camp (R-MI) demanded that CMS deliver all documents on ACA enrollment.  He's making a mockery of his committee -- the group responsible for funding bills -- by first trying to deny funding for the ACA, then demanding that CMS produce numbers of enrollees on the program that he' trying to cut spending on.

Can you say, "SABOTAGE"?

If Cuccinelli loses as expected...

Nothing, and I mean nothing, suggests that Ken Cuccinelli will win.  But he's the one who pushed the Virginia governor's race as a referendum on the ACA.  So what happens when he loses?

I want to hear Ken Cuccinelli therefore, come out and admit that the ACA is here to stay.  I think people should demand that he double down and offer to state this very clearly, if when he loses.

3D rendered video of Mars.

Via Space.com, an amazing 3D rendered video of the surface of Mars, by the European Space Agency, from satellite topography scans.  If you have Chromecast, you can do the kudgy thing that I do and stream it to the TV from a cast Chrome tab.

Our 48 is better than your 85.

USC beat Oregon State, 31 - 14, and if you paid close attention, you would have noticed that a number of non-scholarship players made their way into the game, especially on kickoffs / special teams.

With just around 48 scholarship players making the trip up north (and with USC's inability to win on the road at Corvallis), most everyone expected USC to play tough but lose to the Beavers.  But it turned out, USC's 48 scholarship players were better than OSU's 85.

Specifically, USC had two running backs who rushed for over 100 yards against the Beavers (Buck Allen and Silas Redd).  Meanwhile USC's defense held the highest-yard passing quarterback in the FBS -- Sean Mannion -- to 277 yards (130 yards below his game average), with three interceptions.  Those three interceptions matched all of Mannion's interceptions in the previous 8 games.  Also, lowest QBR for Mannion this season.

Best total defense in the PAC-12?  USC.

With four games left, USC travels to play two of the weakest teams in the PAC-12 (Cal and Colorado) while playing at home against the tougher competition (Stanford and UCLA).  I'd say USC has a good chance of moving up into a better bowl game, and with a lot of luck, slides into the PAC-12 Championship.

Top brand with Democrats: Google.

YouGov's latest brand index on political affiliation, shows Google as tops with Democrats.  Interestingly, Apple doesn't show up in anyone's top-10, while Amazon is in everyone's (red, blue, independent) top-10.

This is the second year in a row in which Google was the top brand among Democrats, which just really fascinates me.  Does it reflect respect that Google chases after the brightest minds, pursuing moonshot-type projects?  Or does it reflect overwhelming support by younger Americans, of Google over Apple and Microsoft?  Perhaps it's just an extension of the growth of Android as THE alternative to the walled garden of Apple?

I would argue that Amazon's best-selling lists reflects this support of younger Americans, with Chromebooks occupying four of the top five notebook sales, and Chromecast as the top seller in the catch-all electronics category.  (Right behind all those Google products, are Amazon's own Kindle tablets.)

It also appears to me that all those anti-Google ads by Microsoft are, at least, ineffective or worse, backfiring.

And surely most Americans respect Google X (if they know anything about it) -- the moonshot skunkworks group that is searching to find answers to many things, all unrelated to Google's core business.

My Nexus 5 shipped on Friday.

I got the email notice on Friday evening that my phone just shipped.  I cheaped out on the shipping, selecting 3-5 day (ground) rather than 2 day (air).  I figured if the difference is just a couple of days, why bother -- I'm still getting it by next week Thursday.  It'd be a lot sooner if the inventory warehouse was in SF instead of Kentucky.

Not that my GS-II is bad.  I still love the 7 home screens, and the hardware remains more than acceptable.  But it's now fallen outside of the 18-month window of updates, the battery requires daily (or more) recharging, and I don't like the bloatware on it.  Frankly, I don't see the point of Samsung's KIES software either, since everything is backed up somewhere else (contacts, emails, photos, etc).

But heck, just to show up iPhone 5S fanbois is reason enough, right? 

Excited!  :D

FYI: Black November is a thing.

You know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and now we now have Black November.  #BlackNovember is a thing now, starting with NewEgg and with WalMart.  

It does not mean that they've done away with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, rather, just as Christmas decorations started showing up in September, so too has early shopping specials.

Nexus 5 is running out quickly.

16GB models are out of inventory and 32GB models are 2-3 weeks out.  If you had bought online right away, it was listed available for shipping no later than Nov. 5th.  Half an hour later it was Nov. 8th.  7 hours later all models were listed 2-3 weeks out, or longer.

The moral of the story: You snooze you lose.