10 thoughts for December 30, 2013

1. The war hawk response to the NYT report on the Benghazi attack is predictable, but noticeably, they're placing less emphasis on everything else but the ties to Al Qaeda, which are now being asserted less as direct Al Qaeda involvement and more as affiliation of people who participated in the attacks.  Many war hawks are calling the report wrong, but not actually refuting it.
2. No other division is stronger than the NFC West, with more combined wins than any other division.  So, even as Seattle was the first team in the NFL to qualify for the playoffs, they hadn't won their division until Sunday, after beating the Rams.
3. Sticking with the NFC West: Unfortunately for Arizona, even if they had beaten SF and tied them with an overall record of 11-5, they'd still be left out of the playoffs by virtue of division records.  Had the NFL used a top-6 conference method to qualify teams for the playoffs however, Arizona would have made it 3 teams from the NFC West to make the playoffs.
4. The title of a recent blog entry by the conservative "American Thinker" -- "Obama parties hearty in Hawaii" -- gets three things wrong.  Firstly, hearty is an adjective, but the American Thinker uses it to describe a verb, which means that they should have used an adverb; if they were real thinkers, they would have known to use "heartily".  Secondly, "hearty" refers to genuineness or heartfeltness, whereas "hardy" implies boldness; whereas one might party genuinely, one should party boldly -- or at least that's the intention of the blog post's subject.  Thirdly, while the subject of the Thinker's post -- Obama attending a friend's barbecue -- does imply a hearty party (note that "party" here is being used as a noun), in fact, the intention of the Thinker's post was to imply that Obama attended a hardy party that shut down certain businesses out of security reasons.  So, do you concern yourself with superficial Thinkers, or serial analysts?
5. This CNN Poll's commentary feels wrong.  Or at least, the logic seems lacking in how people think about the intentions to pursue the Afghanistan and Vietnam wars and their resulting outcomes.  50,000 dead American military personnel is much greater than 2,300 dead American military personnel.  One war involved the introduction of a compulsory draft, whereas the other was made up of 100% volunteers.  One war involved the fear of a spreading ideology -- Communism -- whereas the other was meant to strike back at those who attacked us on our soil.  It seems to me, that Americans want to pull out now that we've gotten Osama Bin Laden, and see no other point to staying in Afghanistan -- and that's fine with me.  But to not go to war in Afghanistan?  That's crazy.  I don't like wars, but I'm no pacifist.  I'm willing to go to war, but only for the right reasons.
6. Two Volgograd attacks killing a couple dozen innocent people and injuring many more.  Definitely bad for Russia and for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, but let's not go overboard, because Sochi is 600 miles away, which is almost the same distance as that between San Francisco and Portland.  It may be that the FSB has already stepped up presence and tracking in Sochi, as to make it an impossible target for terrorists and therefore they chose Volgograd.
7. Speaking of the Olympics, Russia is spending in excess of $50B USD.  That exceeds even China's $43B 2008 Summer Olympics, which, if you look at this graphic, it's hard to imagine how the US could ever host another Olympics.
8. This question over whether the ACA will exacerbate shortages of medical personnel has been around for years, but the USA Today incorrectly conflates Medicaid's lower reimbursement rates (leading to many doctors declining participation in Medicaid) with the personnel shortage.
9. FTR, I have never purchased or otherwise used a case for any of my three smartphones over the past 5 years.  According to this NPD survey, 1/3rd of Android owners do not use a case.  But just 13% of iPhone users go without a case.  And of course you'd expect that, because those glass faces are fragile.  The only time I'd sought any sort of protection, was those screen protectors in my G1, and that was because it came with one already on it, which made me believe that it needed one.  Since then, I've been perfectly fine without it.
10. Republicans have changed their minds quite dramatically in their belief of evolution, going from 54% in 2009 to 43% in 2013, which means that a very significant 20+ percentage point gap exists between Republicans and everyone else (Democrats, Independents).  That pretty much goes along the same lines of how Republicans reject science in general, though.  It's also interesting that education (college grad vs. =< high school grad) also separates the general US public in opinions over evolution by a 20+ pp gap.  I can understand why conservatives want to get rid of the federal DOE, as the more educated one becomes, the less likely one will turn into a strict adherent to conservative dogma.  Alternative (re: home) educational standards means that people are able to live completely within their bubbles.

A follow up to my ChromeOS post.

Apparently I missed this NPD report of computing sales for the year, through US commercial channels.  It shows that while both Chromebooks and Android tablets have surged this past year, Chromebook growth exploded like crazy, gaining 9.4 percentage points in one year.  In fact, more Chromebooks were sold in the commercial channels, than Android tablets.  But combine Chromebook and Android tablet sales and they added up to more than the combined sales of Apple's notebooks and tablets.

So I got to thinking that this reminds me a lot of the Android smartphone growth trajectory, on its way to a stable, moderately dominant market share.

Albeit, the source of ChromeOS growth is quite a bit different than smart phones, in that the majority of it comes from the education market and certain enterprises looking for thin (re: mobile) clients, while Android smartphones come almost entirely from consumer purchases (in turn fueling the expanding concept of enterprise BYOD.)  Still, Chromebooks were far and away the best selling notebooks at Amazon.com during the holiday shopping season, and Chromebooks have been at the top of Amazon's best-seller list in the notebook category most of this year.

Another point that I missed: inclusive Google Apps -- it's what's driving growth of Chromebooks in the education and enterprise markets.  Project this out into the consumer market, where Google Drive becomes the good-enough replacement of Microsoft's Office suite, and therein belies the compelling reason why Microsoft's future is very cloudy, literally (as in cloud apps) and figuratively (as in, uncertain).   Google is bearing down on Microsoft's two main profit centers -- Office and desktop OS -- while Microsoft is losing billions in a fruitless chase after Google's profit center -- Search (which encompasses ads).

Therefore, I think that 5-year projection might be too far out; ChromeOS might come to gain a dominant position over Windows in 2~3 years instead.  Oh, and for those WP fanboys out there: If you thought recent WP market share growth was huge, that year-over-year Chromebook surge = 4700% -- how do you like them...err...apples?

In a near-future post: No, Microsoft's WP is not winning (complete with pretty charts!)

10 thoughts for December 28, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. A couple of cheetahs in a zoo got lucky: A wild white-tailed deer jumped into their enclosure.
2. A federal judge says bulk metadata collection is legal, because "the cost of missing such a thread [extracted from the metadata] can be horrific."  In other words, the ends justify the means.
3. You hate that slow, green bar in your Windows folder, don't you?  Solved.
4. Why, I still remember how, earlier this year people told me that, because Bitcoin was anonymous and decentralized, that it couldn't be shut down.  And yet, the central banks of India and China have pretty much accomplished this.  Exactly as I said could happen.  If FinCEN were to declare Bitcoins illegal, the Winklevoss twins would turn into huge losers.  Oh wait...they already are.
5. Instinctively, don't you sleep when you feel stressed or find yourself at a mental roadblock, because you know that when you wake up, you'll feel better?  I didn't think this needed to be explained, but it is, here.
6. Target says that PINs were stolen as well as CC / DC data, but that the data was protected by triple-DES.  But think about it for a moment...you don't need to break the encryption at all.   Credit cards don't necessarily use PINs (except for use as a debit card).  CCs rely on CVN for online transactions -- data that wasn't stolen, either -- but it provides room to use stolen credit card info to make in-person purchases.  Also, one should expect more information to be revealed over time, because I still believe that the attack would have likely involved modifications to the swipe machines themselves to take bypass encryption of debit card PINs.
7. So far so good...PAC-12 is 3-1 in bowls.  WSU (or should I say Mike Leach?) turned out a turd in the last two minutes, though, and the PAC-12 should have been 4-0.  Looks like Leach has settled into being a proper Cougar.
8. Oh look: After three months of my frequent complaints (here and elsewhere), Cover Oregon has finally moved its website to HTTPS.  Of course, you still can't sign up for coverage online, but at least there's some progress.  How embarrassing, though.  Oracle should be fired, tried and convicted of incompetence in the court of public opinion otherwise known as the news media.
9. This one might be a big one, but you know, I'd moved on a loooong time ago because the outrage was fake.  Anyway: NYT in-depth probe finds that the Benghazi incident was fueled by outrage over a video, and did not involve Al Qaeda.  This therefore means that Susan Rice was dragged over the coals for no good reason.  More than that, the single piece of evidence tying Al Qaeda to Benghazi was a phone call placed to a person with ties to people within Al Qaeda, who'd expressed surprise that an attack had occurred.  In other words, no one told Al Qaeda that an attack was about to happen.  So that's that, right?  Probably not, because you know, Darrell Issa and other Republicans can't seem to let go of an issue that has no legs other than the self-fueled echo-chamber of the conservative media.
10. Do you know why there are so many crappy bowl games?  ESPN.  If not for the guaranteed money from ESPN, these really crappy bowls would not exist, because they haven't the filled seats to break even.  Do you know who's to blame?  People who subscribe to cable TV.  They subsidize things that they don't watch.  A review of the major bowl games show that viewership has dropped after they moved from broadcast TV to ESPN.  So, fewer people are watching, but more people are paying.  Laughable economics, but that's what happens when you have government allowing certain types of monopolies.

Moocher no more.

Retarded companies that put out shitty CAD drawings.

I'd been staring at some diagrams in a fireplace manufacturer's PDF manual, trying to decipher the hell out of them.  This one below takes the cake, but critically, it should have clued me into how badly their CAD drawings would be.

Let me first explain how useless this diagram is.

• Those are supposed to be metal studs, but they're drawing roughly as square, wood posts.  Can you tell which direction they're supposed to be oriented?
• What the hell do they mean that all metal studs must be on edge?  Do they mean that the flange side of studs creating the rough opening must be attached to the fireplace?
• Look at that vertical member mounted to the top of the horizontal member -- do you suppose that it was supposed to be centered, or slightly off-centered?  But wait, if there's something to attach to this vertical member, shouldn't there be a dimension?  WTF?
• Apparently, metal studs just drop directly into the finished floor.  No track.  
• This diagram shows a vertical member in between the dimension A direction, and it's just on one side.  WTF?
• Dude drew it in 3D...why?  Neither can this person visually scale things nor do they understand how to construct an axon.  Just look at those stupid legs pointed in parallel at an angle that is different to the finished floor edge.  This kind of reminds me of the people who use Microsoft Excel to draw floor plans, then demur when you request CAD files.  Dude, draw by hand if you don't have the tools to draw on the computer.

You know what really bothers me though, is that every other dimension is identified twice in their diagrams, but they do not match.  They're always either 1/16" or 1/8" off from each other.  Again, WTF?

So now, let me explain how shitty their CAD file was:

• Some idiot drew their dimensions and text on the same layer as the fireplace, and called it "Layer 1".  In other words, the default layer name.
• This person also drew the fireplace in no specific units.  It says 3", but it measures in decimals, as 0.215.  Okay, well maybe this is metric, because the company is located in British Columbia, right?  Nope.  3 / .215 = 13.9534884.  This has no metric conversion involved.
• So, scale the drawing up by 13.9534884, right?  Turns out, the measurements shown in text, do not match what is actually measured.  It was not drawn to any scale whatsoever!  So, while the 3" now measures 3", another annotated dimension shown as 48 11/16" actually measures out to 50 5/16".  WTF?
• Of course, those dimension lines don't actually point to anything.  In some cases they're roughly close to the inside face of a metal panel, and in other cases, just floating around in space.

So I gave up and came to my blog to disparage the fools who put out this crap.  Shame on you.

Using Chromecast.

The day Chromecast was announced, I ordered mine, and have been using it every day, no exaggeration.  With the latest update however, Chromecast has made a huge leap, such that it's now possible to make it the center of your audio visual system.  This is roughly how I would want my system to be set up, and generally is set up this way, except that I only have one TV connected and my storage is a single-drive NAS, no RAID.

Undoubtedly there are many variations, but this can be your template.  The NAS is not shown as attached to the router, even though in reality it is, but if you cast content via a Chrome browser, you're actually doing it the way as shown.

Now, if you set up a Plex environment, then the NAS would instead be directed to the router and not the computer.  This however requires quite a bit more complexity in that you have to install the software to your NAS, for which there are limited options to choose from, for support.

So what can you do?  Here's the basic list:

• Videos can be streamed via supported Android / iOS apps on your tablet and phone, or within Chrome browser's featured apps and extensions.  This includes YouTube, Vevo, Hulu+, Netflix, HBO Go, Revision3 and many others.
• Music can be streamed via supported Android  / iOS apps on your tablet and phone, or within the Chrome browser, including Google Music, Pandora and Songza.  There'll probably be others to follow shortly, but I personally think music videos are better.
• Local content (music, photos or videos) can be streamed, either indirectly via dragging and dropping content to a Chrome browser tab that you cast to your TV, or directly by installing software onto your NAS and installing apps to your smart phone, tablet and / or desktop computers to push content directly from your NAS to a TV.

What is missing:

• The ability to stream photo albums directly from Flickr, Picasa (Google+ Photos) and others.  I suppose the next step is streaming photo albums and music simultaneously, eh?
• A wider assortment of supporting apps for music, including Spotify, Tunein (or some other Shoutcast / Icecast streaming audio), Slacker, and Soundcloud.
• Better artwork support, or random imagery support for Google Play Music streaming and other streaming audio sites, because those fixed images or a lack of imagery ruins the experience and burns into a plasma TV.
• A broader support for video streaming, including Crackle, Dailymotion and Vimeo.
• Games.  It can be done.  If you cast a tab running this Chrome Experiment, using your smart phone as the controller, you've essentially got a gaming system, albeit with a bit of a delay.  The implications are huge and the possibilities, wide.

Should you buy it now?  Well, surely some time next year Google will have Chromecast 2.0 with better specs, right?  If you've got two TVs, you might as well buy one now and play with it.  Then, if / when Google introduces Chromecast 2.0, you can switch the second device to a smaller TV that is used mainly for watching online videos.  Or you can always sell your Chromecast 1.0 dongle.

This is the revolution in content access that I'd been holding out for, all these years.

Why ChromeOS will eventually supplant Windows for most users.

ChromeOS: World domination (or something like it) in 5 years or less

I am quite aware that many tech folks roll their eyes at the suggestion that ChromeOS will eventually displace  and dominate Windows for market share.  It is absolutely true that ChromeOS, currently associated hardware, some current web technologies and current internet access speeds all create some obstacles towards this end.  But I believe the future of all apps is web-based programming.

Assuming that you want to create an app that is easily accessible from either a smart phone, a tablet or a desktop / laptop.  The problem has typically been, that you've got all sorts of operating systems that you have to address in unique ways.  The Office for Mac is an entirely different box of code from that of Office for Windows, which is an entirely different box of code from that of Office for Windows RT, and so on.

The solution is to program for the web, and let the browser handle the interface between each operating system.  With ChromeOS, what is essentially a browser, you're telling Google to handle the back end of the interface between different operating systems and your app.  Now, if someone writes an app that works inside of the Chrome browser, what's to stop people from simply sticking with Windows and a Chrome browser?

Actually, price matters

Price is a big issue for Microsoft.  The Windows operating system is not cheap, even at the OEM level.  OEM pricing is at about $100 per license.  What's the cost of the ChromeOS?  $0.  What's the cost of MacOS?  $0.

Microsoft is caught in a Catch-22: Do they give the OS away and lose substantial (about 1/3rd) amount of income on licenses, or do they continue to see market share dwindle along with their license income?  That's what Microsoft is facing, even as sales for PCs remain sluggish, or under projections from IDC and others, dropping fast.

Microsoft is reactive, not proactive

Microsoft is such a laggard these days however, that I strongly doubt they'll be able to react in time to save Windows.  It was a couple of years between the day the iPhone went on sale and the first WP device.  The story is the same regardless of what you look at (iPod, iPad, Google Apps, Bing, etc): Microsoft is reactive not proactive.

Lack of native apps?

I know that a major gripe of ChromeOS, being a browser, is that apps are hosted online.  But every month there are more native apps being produced.  Furthermore, if you buy a 3G / 4G connected device and utilize T-Mobile's 200MB / month for free, you're set up quite nicely to be productive online or offline.  Suddenly, that plane trip with your ChromeOS laptop is a productive, connected journey.  Your office is anywhere, not just coffee shops with free WiFi.

But wait, are you really working at remote locations without protected WiFi?  At home or at work, you're probably always connected to a secured WiFi, which defuses the need for hosted apps.  Eventually, one can imagine that the ChromeOS world will look an awful lot like that of Android's.

Power users will have to wait

I have emphasized that for most users, ChromeOS will hold strong appeal.  But for obvious reasons, power users are a separate category.  For instance, I will always need one computer that allows me to produce 3D and 2D content, whether renderings, modeling or graphics layout (that is, unless I decide to move on and become a beach bum or a mountain man).  These things require fast pipelines, and the current state of the internet means that, even at gigabit speed, this is nothing but a pipe dream for now.  Consider that SATA III is specified for 6Gbps.   If you're sharing a gigabit internet connection, your network speed will be even slower than a SATA III connector inside of your computer.

And of course, the constant loading of apps that are on the order of 500MB, will make your computer far too sluggish to use for work.  Yeah I know, lots of people consider themselves power users, but very few truly are.  1MB spreadsheets are nothing compared to my 100MB 3D models and 1GB XML 3D rendering files.

But here's the thing about power users: Linux could mark the next great step towards lower-cost, high powered computers that bypass the Windows OS ecosystem.  My next desktop will likely be a custom-build on the Ubuntu platform.  Using WINE, I'll be able to run Windows software.  Or I could split boots between Windows 7 and Ubuntu.  Forget Windows 8.1.

What about Windows 9?

I think that Microsoft is too heavily invested in its vision of what Windows should look like, tiles and all.  Which is to say that I don't hold high hopes for Windows 9.  I would be surprised if they pulled a turnaround, because the rhetoric surrounding Windows 8 and 8.1 implies that the company does not see the current OS as a failure, whereas it was quite clear that the rhetoric surrounding Vista was an explicit acknowledgement that Vista was a failure.  Besides, as I said before, cost remains an unresolved issue for Microsoft.  If they continue to charge for it they face dwindling users, while giving it away means shrinking income.

But won't people simply switch to Macs?

No silly; price matters!  And, Macs remain a relatively closed system, such that hardware manufacturers will embraced ChromeOS, shooting the price down as specs get better.  The future, my friends, is ChromeOS.  The proof will be CES 2014.  Watch as companies all flock to ChromeOS.

Or I could just be completely wrong and Microsoft regains its dominant position in the world and Google disappears.

Laughter ensues.

Some curious things about DuckDuckGo search engine.

I thought I could use DuckDuckGo as a neutral search engine to moderate a series of queries from Google and Bing.  Instead, what I quickly noticed was that DuckDuckGo's results placement were eerily mirrored by Bing.

Search for "macadamia nut pancake mix" results:

Google	DuckDuckGo	Bing
amazon.com	konacoastpancakemix.com	konacoastpancakemix.com
worldmarket.com	nextag.com	nextag.com
mezzetta.com	amazon.com	amazon.com
konacoastpancakemix.com	siphawaii.com	siphawaii.com
abcstores.com	worldmarket.com	worldmarket.com
siphawaii.com	simplefoodie.com	simplefoodie.com
shopwell.com	thefind.com	thefind.com
simplefoodie.com	honestcooking.com	honestcooking.com
walmart.com	abcstores.com	abcstores.com
minimalistbaker.com	hawnnut.com	hawnnut.com
sugardishme.com	rover.ebay.com	rover.ebay.com

That's an impossible coincidence for a relatively obscure search, don't you think?  And I've replicated this many times, now.  It seems to me that DuckDuckGo is using Bing.  If you look carefully at a sidebar ad, it says that DuckDuckGo was built "in partnership with Yandex" -- a European (Russian) search engine. Only problem is that a similar search on Yandex does not replicate the same results as on DuckDuckGo's results.

So I'm wondering if DuckDuckGo licensed Bing, and if they did so, are they passing IP addresses as well as search terms back to Bing?

Secondly, I think someone needs to clarify why DuckDuckGo utilizes a handful of single pixels in their search results, some of which change its URLs with each unique search.  Usually these single pixels are done so, as a work-around means of tracking people without using cookies.  I find this very troubling.

10 thoughts for December 26, 2013

1. Been busy.  Many things have happened over the past week, but I just haven't had the time to dedicate towards even writing down some thoughts about them.
2. Went to IKEA to grab a white Spontan magnetic board.  They were out.  I just called to find out more information, and it turns out the white color has been flagged to be discontinued.  I don't know if this means that new colors will be coming in???  I don't like the silver, though -- too masculine and industrial for what I'm chasing after.
3. Seahawks lost to the Cardinals.  The circle is oddly complete: The coach -- Pete Carroll -- whose hiring sparked a remarkable resurgence in the student's -- Carson Palmer --career as quarterback at USC, turning him into a Heisman winner, has lost to the student.  I had a feeling this might happen, as the Cardinals have undergone a massive turnaround from last year's failure.
4. The media and pundits are too focused on December ACA numbers.  The fact of the matter is, December isn't even the real deadline.  It is the deadline if you want coverage starting January 1st, but the law doesn't require you to have coverage starting January 1st.  I have to wonder just how much the media understands about the ACA.
5. A 13 year-old girl suffered from surgery complications that led to doctors declaring her brain-dead.  I used to believe that these tests to show brain activity were correct and that holding on to brain-dead patients was a misguided hope.  But in recent years, some patients have recovered from a brain-dead confirmation, which spooked the hell out of me.  Can you imagine, you're on a ventilator as your organs are about to be removed?  It's actually happened before.  
6. By odd coincidence, I told my friend -- who works at Kaiser -- that rather than using Oracle, Oregon's health insurance exchange should have used a healthcare company -- I suggested Kaiser -- that is knee-deep in this sort of complex back-end systems.  She replied that, in fact someone just left Kaiser to go work for the state to fix Cover Oregon.  I have many other thoughts about why several exchanges were unprepared, but that's a longish post.
7. The "Pay it Forward" meme is detached from its meaning.  These days, it refers to a long chain of people paying for the person after them, until someone breaks the chain -- the person who presumably couldn't afford to pay for it, but nonetheless was in line.  What its supposed to mean, is that you pay for someone else who can't afford to pay.  For instance: If there was a bucket -- we'll call it a Salvation Army kettle -- that collected money that was then disbursed to the needy, by putting money in the bucket you're paying it forward.
8. I've read and heard a lot of complaints that A&E got the Duck Dynasty issue all wrong; that conservatives are being punished for expressing free speech.  Funny thing is, in the run up to the Iraq War, the Dixie Chicks were severely punished by conservatives for being anti-war.  So it seems, conservatives enjoy cherry-picking their information to build their false narrative.  But for the record, conservatives complaining about free speech have twisted the meaning of free speech in the first place.  Speech is protected from government censorship, only.  Political correctness is the act of the majority to exercise conformity to social norms.
9. As I mentioned previously, once Pinterest started dropping pins in from strangers, I began losing pinning interest.  These days, I don't pin nearly as much as I once used to.  
10. Induction cooking is a very fast and safe method of cooking, plus, it's clean since it has no exposed parts -- just a glass surface.  But it's usually very expensive.  So this IKEA induction cooktop sure looks like a great deal.  Anyone have it installed?

The Day After Christmas.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas (a day off to celebrate having a day off, for non-Christians).

I didn't get around to it, but these were the holiday cards sent out this year, printed by Moo.com, about a month ago.  The diptych, obviously, is the night before Christmas and the next morning.  I had about 6 hours to get them done before the free shipping deadline, but the idea had been in my head roasting for a week or so.

Christmas dinner at the BFF's was an interesting drive to and fro through the dense fog, unsure whether the road was covered with a layer of frozen fog.

The dogs...well, they mostly get along.  They had to get the order of the pack sorted out, and once that was done, there was peace.

Lots of catching up on posts that have been ignored for the last few days as Christmas approached.

Finally, to friends in Canada, Happy Boxing Day, eh?  :D

10 thoughts for December 17, 2013

1. Looks like the US government had been trying to undermine Edward Snowden by downplaying his true capabilities, creating their own narrative about who he was and what he did.  The media did itself no favors by buying into the BS that he was just a network administrator.
2. On the same topic, a federal judge has ruled against the government on those cellular meta data sweeps, which means of course, that the SCOTUS will have to take up the subject and we'll get to find out where the members of SCOTUS stand on privacy.
3. Which brings us to the contemporary issue of whether Edward Snowden should be given amnesty from prosecution.  As The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf asks, "What does it say about the Obama Administration, and the United States generally, that the architects of torture remain free, even though authorities have no legal discretion to absolve them, while Edward Snowden, who exposed various NSA surveillance practices, stands accused of being a traitor to the United States?"  I happen to agree wholeheartedly.
4. So, I watched Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, because there was this one 3D-printed prop that I knew about ahead of time, as I read about it on a design blog.  It turns out there was just one 3D-printed prop and it was worn near the end of the show.  I don't think 99.9% of the people there even realized that it was 3D printed.  I can't believe I had that video running in the background for nearly 45 minutes, for just 15 seconds of seeing a model sport a 3D-printed prop.
5. I am so honestly tired of Microsoft's "Honestly" ads.  Honestly, if someone keeps prefacing their comments with, "honestly", I honestly don't think they're being honest.  Honestly speaking, it makes me feel as if they're trying to plant dishonest propaganda.
6. Libertarians and conservatives continue to believe that massive inflation is around the corner...for the last five years, now.  But hey, even gold bugs are bailing out of gold -- the primary hedge against inflation aside from TIPS.
7. OMG, I love a good rivalry.  So long as it doesn't get violent, that is.  These days, it seems that people forget to keep their emotions in check.
8. Arizona Cardinals at 9 - 5 are looking pretty good with Carson Palmer.  Which brings me to the haters, and the talk about how Palmer was an interim solution.
9. This is premature, but suffice to say, it is not impossible to consider that the Portland Trailblazers and Seattle Seahawks could both win championships in 2014.  The dots that connect the two: Paul Allen owns them.  
10. Pete Carroll.  I still remember defending his hire online in comment boards, back in 2000.  But then again, I also defended the belief that Lane Kiffin had the room to grow and learn on the job as USC head coach.  I still believe in Lane Kiffin's skills, though he may need much more time than I had anticipated, to mature and become a confident leader in full command and control of a team.  Nick Saban would probably agree.

10 thoughts for December 12, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. You must try this festive, musical interactive from Moo.com.  Some serious fun.
2. Just a reminder: Java and Javascript are not the same thing.  There aren't many websites that use Java, but I'm guessing about 99% of all websites use Javascript.  Your Java installation must be updated regularly.  Javascript has nothing to update.  If someone writes malware via Javascript, your choices are: The internet blocks access to that website hosting malware or you actively block Javascript via your browser settings.  I've written about this a few times: I actively block all Javasccript and selectively whitelist websites one-by-one.  It's not the most convenient way of using the internet, but it's a solid protocol to lower your risk.
3. Energy companies should probably know best, how to price carbon emissions, don't you think?  Whether or not they're setting prices for self-interest in lowering cost, is a separate issue, of course.  But if you look at this chart, you'll notice that they're almost all setting their internal price estimate of one ton of carbon very close to, or above, that of the White House's.  At the very bottom of the spectrum: Microsoft.  Ha.  Long-term planning at Microsoft seems to underestimate future costs, were carbon emissions to be taxed.
4. The AP does not treat the English language carefully.  Long ago on this very blog, I dismissed AP sourced stories as terribly written and poorly researched.  I bring this up because in this AP story, Loretta Fuddy, the director of the Hawai'i Department of Health who just died in a plane crash, was called "notorious" for her role in confirming Barack Obama's birth certificate.  I suppose that would maker her infamous, a la Dumb and Dumber, right?
5. I'm going to write about this separately, but I couldn't hold it in: Jolicloud's beta is really good!  Miss iGoogle?  Jolicloud is like a one-stop site to digest most of your subscribed content.  A new Jolicloud is now in beta, and it sure does look spiffy, with cards of your content, including Feedly RSS feeds.
6. Macroeconomic Advisers commented that the 2-year budget will result in a slight boost above projections in GDP for 2014, followed by a slight reduction in GDP in 2015 and 2016.  The total effect = long-term zero sum.  The House passed the spending bill, 332-92, which means that it had strong bipartisan support.  All of this simply means that, however the economy turns, Congress will no longer be the cause of consternation for its frequent confrontations bringing the economy to the edge of collapse.
7. And good news, because many economists are now coming out suggesting that 2014 will be a huge boost in economic growth.  Perhaps the Feds will be able to taper sooner and faster without any market reaction.
8. But wait, there still is one more issue out there: The Treasury's Debt Ceiling  is coming up in a few months (yet again).
9. Because Senate Democrats removed the filibuster from certain procedures, Senate Republicans have vowed to use the standing filibuster to temporarily block one of President Obama's nominations.  Good for them -- this is exactly what Democrats wanted -- I don't think Republicans get the humor of it all, though.  (In the end, they're punishing themselves to prove a worthless point.)
10. Breaking news: Something happened!  Is there ever a news broadcast these days, that doesn't have breaking news at the start?  Breaking news: Truck overturned on rural road!  Breaking news: Men arrested for answering Craigslist ad for underage sex!  Breaking news: Storm hits and a tree fell down!  On a car!

10 thoughts for December 11, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. True story.  A contractor on Tuesday explained that his iPhone 5 has failed him multiple times now, with ear audio not working, forcing him to use speakerphone only.  He waited for over and hour while Apple Care tried to fix the problem, only to fail to fix it, relenting finally, and giving him a new replacement phone.  In my 5 years of owning Android phones, I've never experienced a fatal flaw like that.  I've gone through some buggy software, but never bad hardware.  In that same period, people that I personally know, who've owned iPhones, have experienced all sorts of hardware flaws, including the infamous You're Holding it Wrong issue.
2. You know, it's okay to admit that your iPhone isn't the perfect device that Apple sold you on.
3. I've watched a few Auburn games this year, and they are not some fluke.  They have a lot of really good athletes on that team, particularly their starting running back...the fella who's headed to NY for the Heisman award ceremony as part of the top-6 voted.
4. Speaking of the Heisman, the media has a tendency to build up players with questionable character, only to tear them down afterwards. It's more convenient for Heisman voters to claim ignorance after the fact, without repercussions, I guess.
5. I'm starting to become a huge fan of Vevo supporting Chromecast, because it automatically streams content based on my search for a particular artist and song, which is not unlike Google Music, except for one big difference: Vevo streams video music while Google Music just streams music with cover art display, and cover art on a big screen is rather useless.  Further, when one is working, the video oddly serves as a means to remain focused on the current task at hand.  As I'm editing this point, Vevo's been serving me up 80's to mid-90's music after searching and playing George Michael's Fastlove.  Rick Astley just finished up Cry for Help, and now Michael Jackson's Billy Jean is on.  Smiles all around, baby.  Well okay, they need to spruce up their catalog a bit, but that's okay because I'm getting great quality videos streaming.
6. Eddie Bauer's Relaxed Fit Eddie's Favorite Flannel Shirt (Plaid) was on sale the other day, for $35.  Today it was moved to the Clearance section, for a bargain price of $40.  FWIW, if you wait until February, that same flannel shirt will be reduced to about $16~$20, or less at their physical outlet stores on weekends.  At $20, it is a huge bargain as the EB flannel shirts are much thicker and better quality than those that you can get at Old Navy for the same price.
7. FINALLY!  It only took several years, but Google Sheets has pushed out a major update (that you have to enable, and only applies to new sheets), which allows you to create custom date and number formats, and color code your tabs, and do offline edits!  This is a major step towards making Chrome OS a truly functional alternative to even Open Office.
8. FINALLY! Part 2.  Google updated their web version of Keep and fixed the biggest problem I had with it: while the mobile app allowed you to move items up and down a list, the web version was fixed.  Also, they made it a lot clearer and easier to find archived notes.  Still, it's quite a bit short of Evernote.
9. Google brought out its Santa Tracker once again.  It has some of the stuff from last year, but expanded with a lot more content.  Love, love, love the interactive features!  Here's a video that's embedded in their site.  Enjoy.  Laugh.  Have fun!
10. On an amusing note of sorts, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) pulled together a compromise budget deal, where no one got what they really wanted, but they weren't being forced to accept things they absolutely hated.  In other words, the perfect solution for divided government!  I mean hey, that's much better than a small group of people stopping government from functioning altogether.

10 thoughts for December 10, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. One of the swag items for UCLA Bruins going to the Sun Bowl: Helen of Troy hair dryer.  Ha!
2. Something people are neglecting when asking whether Washington or USC had the better hire: FIT.  Petersen apparently didn't fit with the expectations at USC, while Sark has been in and out of the university for two decades, first as a student then as a grad assistant, then eventually to assistant coach.
3. At nearly the same time, my Nexus 7 2012 and my Nexus 5 got the Android KitKat 4.4.2 updates this afternoon.  The camera app is definitely more sprightly.
4. Also clearly updated in the background today: Chromecast.  If you have Chromecast turned on but nothing streaming to it, there's a plethora of new photos with credits to the photographers.  I'm guessing that they're grabbing Creative Commons licensed content.  Very nice.
5. Speaking of the Chromecast update, Google also announced the release of new apps.  Or rather I should say, Google officially lifted the embargo of apps that were ready from Day 1 of Chromecast's release.  I know this, because Revision3 folks talked about how it was ready, and demonstrated it. 
6. About those Chromecast apps, the video streaming is HD quality and a far better solution than casting a Chrome tab.  The Revision3 and Vevo apps are worth installing and using.  Plex is...well, nice, but it costs money and requires installing their server-side software if you want to seriously use it.  I've got Viki installed but I haven't yet signed up for a free account and therefore I haven't yet tested it.  But undoubtedly, Chromecast is the device you want, this Christmas.  Got a house party?  Just stream Vevo videos in the background.  Avia allows you to stream content from different sources, including a DLNA server, but for now, I'm holding off until it has access to Flickr and Box.  The combination of Chromecast and Android devices is about as perfect as it gets.
7. About Android: Nokia apparently has a project, codenamed Normandy, for an Android phone.  As expected, it's not a full-fledged Android install, but a custom ROM, much like Amazon's Kindle lineup.  Oh that Elop, he is a sneaky one, isn't he?  They were going full steam on the project even as the approval of the sale of Nokia's handset division to Microsoft was being processed. It does tend to show that, had Microsoft not bought Nokia's handset division, Elop was ready to do a 180° flip and do exactly what I suggested they do, over two years ago: build their own UI over Android.
8. A far-right conservative trying to take Senator John Cornyn's seat away from him, accused Cornyn of being liberal.  To which, of course, everyone laughed.  However, I think it best not to intervene and correct the situation, for as we know, the GOP lean to the far-right brings out the Todd Akins and their fringe ideas.  By disposing of the fringe early on, Cornyn's seat is protected from moderate Democrats, but by allowing the fringe to defeat sufficiently conservative Republicans in primaries around the US, moderate Democrats gain a significant advantage in the 2014 general elections.  Just saying, tactics people.
9. There were a lot of dissatisfied people with Microsoft's $99 Dell Venue Pro offer, yesterday.  It appears that stores apparently had different protocols for dealing with their limited inventory, and Microsoft relied on leaked advertising to garner publicity, but left the fine print to its website, after the fact.  All of this points to terrible planning.
10. I might be an early adopter of sorts, for LTE on T-Mobile in Portland, but I gotta say, the speeds are tremendous: Nov.7 - 24.11Mbps; Nov.12 - 35.80 Mbps; Dec.7 - 41.17 Mbps; Dec.10 - 28.18 Mbps.

10 thoughts on Nelson Mandela's memorial.

Yeah, I stayed up and watched it.  He wasn't just the father of modern South Africa, but also a global symbol.

1. The memorial service was about celebrating Mandela's life.  People all around danced even as people spoke.  That's what a memorial service should be: A celebration of a person's life, not a mourning of one's death.  Death is inevitable, but a life is uniquely experienced and understood.
2. A cultural point: Rain is seen as the heavens opening up and welcoming a great person, as the more prolific a person's life, the greater the rain.  And boy, it was a downpour!
3. The US media outlets covering this included the three major broadcast stations, but ABC and NBC started early while CBS came up only just before President Obama's speech.  Following the end of his speech, they all promptly moved on to their regularly scheduled programming.  On the east coast, this meant that they were going straight to the early morning news, live.  Online, the news sites continued streaming.
4. Three prior US Presidents attended: Carter, the younger Bush (43), and Clinton.  And of course, President Obama, who addressed the crowd with a fine speech.  They saved money and traveled together on Air Force 1, BTW.  Made it easier for secret service, too, since past presidents have lifetime support from secret service. Speaking of Bush, he was loose and congenial.
5. Ubuntu -- President Obama brought it up.  You may know it as a Linux variant, but it is an important word in South African lexicon, meaning human kindness, in the tradition of Humanism.  When Mandela forged the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it was Ubuntu.  Instead of retribution, there is understanding and a reconciled people.
6. Speaking of President Obama, no other speaker received more cheers.  You would not believe the reception he received, with several minutes of cheering.  No doubt, South Africans are acutely aware of his significance in American history, just as Mandela's mark in SA's history is indelible.  While longish, Obama's speech was well received and spoke to the inspiration that Mandela shall continue to feed, long into the future.
7. Following his speech, you could see that some folks started leaving.  South African President Jacob Zuma, apparently a divisive figure, faced a half-empty stadium, including the background of empty seats.  When Obama addressed the stadium, you could see the seats all filled and people dancing continuously.
8. Jacob Zuma's speech was a retelling of the history of Mandela's life, I think...it was about 5 6 7 8 pages and 15 20 25 30 minutes long.
9. Everyone is talking about "The Handshake".  Really now, is Cuba a mortal enemy to the US?  It seems to me, there is no point to maintaining the status quo of no relations.
10. A summary of themes from each leader's speech: Brazilian President faced a quiet crowd as she generally lauded Mandela; Chinese President emphasized future economic cooperation; Cuban President focused on the shared history of the two peoples of South Africa and Cuba and his "comrade"; India's President related Gandhi and Mandela as co-inspirational to the people of India.

10 thoughts for December 8, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. This sold-out ukelele cannot be shipped to Hawai'i.  It's made in China.  That's funny stuff right there.
2. I hope everyone got to watch the Philadelphia - Detroit or the Baltimore - Minnesota games ... six inches of snow.  Looked like they're playing around in the snow...oh wait.
3. 35 bowl games and all but four bowl games are on ESPN; in total, 33 bowl games are controlled by Disney -- this is what a monopoly in sports looks like, folks.  Congress, the DOJ and FCC royally f'd up.  Still not going to buy cable, tho.
4. Oh those lucky Beavers, Oregon State is headed to Hawai'i to play Boise State in the Hawai'i Bowl.  I bet they're hoping for a whole week in Honolulu.  Oregon is headed towards the Alamo Bowl in Texas, against Texas.
5. USC's going to the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl to play against Fresno State -- the same team they open the 2014 season with, on August 30th.  Had FSU lost in the MWC game, it was possible that Utah State and USC would have played in a rematch of the game USC won at home this year.
6. Fact I didn't know: USC mens teams have more national championships than anyone else in the nation.  An info highlighted today after USC men's water polo won its 6th straight championship -- a record in itself.  It's time for a new acronym:  Unrivaled Success in Championships.
7. Monday, the Microsoft Store in-person and online are supposed to have the 8" Dell Venue Pro available for $99.  I was tempted but then realized that it's not big enough to use with Windows.
8. Went outside tonight with the temperature at 22°F / -5.6°C in shorts, with no wind.  It was so comfortable, we went on a 45 minute walk.  We took a short run around the park, too, because the cold air excited the dog.  Did I mention that I was in shorts?  Way more comfortable than the last two days with a strong breeze.  Went out a second time, with the temperature at 20°F / -6.7°C, and without wind it was still very nice.  It's supposed to hit ~ 15°F / -9.4°C in the morning, so I think it'd be fun to go outside in shorts to test it out.
9. Stick with me on this one, even though it might be gross.  This story talks about how lower diversity of gut bacteria has been observed with incidence of colon cancer.  It turns out that one very important means of repopulating your gut bacteria is to eat crap.  Yes, crap as in poop.  Normally people say, "Eat shit and die".  But apparently it's more likely, "Eat shit and live well."  You gotta love the irony of it all.  Of course, repopulating gut bacteria also helps people who cannot recover from undergoing antibiotic treatment or have suffered serious complications resulting from food poisoning.  The typical sign you've lost all your gut bacteria: never-ending runs.
10. This is a bit deep and probably deserves its own post one day.  If everything is purely consequential -- a butterfly flaps its wings, etc. -- then there is but one universe: the consequential one where everything is interrelated and only one outcome is possible.  If everything is purely independent, then there are an infinite number of parallel universes.  If however there are inherent rules to the choices / possibilities that are available to any given molecule or groups of molecules that create an organism -- what you might call genetic inheritance and personality -- then while there could be a googol of parallel universes, there are inherent limits to that total number, and cannot be considered infinite.  So, while I might in some parallel universe conceivably scale Mount Kilimanjaro, it's more likely that my genetic background and personality, etc., would mean that the possibility is out of the question.  And I'm probably not a submariner in another parallel world.  That is to say, I think there are existential rules.

10 thoughts for December 6, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. One by one, each county in Hawai'i is passing a ban on GMO ag.
2. 7% -- That was a huge drop in the unemployment rate, from 7.3%.  This coincides with the government shutdown and subsequent reopening.  Or more precisely, the number for October -- 7.3% -- probably would have been 7.1% if you extrapolate for the general trend this year, were it not for the government shutdown.  Thus, the last six months were: 7.6% -- 7.4 -- 7.3 -- 7.2 -- 7.3 -- 7.0.
3. An interesting point-counterpoint to the lower unemployment rate / good jobs report, is the question about why the markets jumped.  Surely a good jobs report portends a Fed tapering of quantitative easing.  But a good jobs report on top of the good GDP report means that the economy is rebounding well.  As I see it, if the economy is performing well, the tapering -- were it not revealed publicly -- would probably go unnoticed.
4. The IAEA says that one option for the Fukushima plant's lower-radioactive waste water, is to dump it into the ocean.  Huh.  On a pragmatic scale, we do this with all sorts of -- literally -- crap already.  Right now though, I can already hear companies along Portland Harbor will be saying: "Well, all we need to do is dilute our waste!"
5. I did it...went outside with 10°F / -12.2°C wind chill, with shorts on!  Twice!  It's 27°F / -2.8°C, but the wind is gusting fairly strong. Walked around for 20 minutes, in fact.  Ran into an issue: Modern sports-related shoes are built for lightness and breathability, but it also means that your toes freeze.  Yikes!  And I did it twice!  :-O
6. Speaking of cold, it's not just cold, but very dry...so dry that the inch of snow that fell this morning simply dried up and left the sidewalks completely clear by the afternoon.  It snowed a lot everywhere (Corvallis had 9 inches!!!) except in Portland.  Dammit!
7. I just know some people will again point to the cold temps and mock global warming.  For those folks, I suggest going back to half a century ago to compare the annual snowfall records.  We are living in a completely different era.
8. That American vet who went to North Korea as a tourist and ended up getting arrested and held, was finally released.  It's probably no coincidence that his release followed a shakeup of leadership where Jong-un Kim had his uncle and associates disappear.  Power struggles are like that, in dictatorships.
9. Someone pinch me...Portland Trailblazers at 17 - 3?  The best season ever was 1990 - 1991, when the Trailblazers finished 63-19 and a .768 percentage.  Right now they're at .850.  I might have to go check out a few home games.
10. Portland's Pearl District is fighting with City Commissioner Amanda Fritz.  She unilaterally decided that she could relocate a homeless camp to an area under a bridge ramp, a block away from a hotel going up.  Now she's throwing a stink that district leaders have found an empty building that would require renovations.  I don't understand her tantrum, except that she's just not a team player, and her superficial attempts to help the homeless needs to be reexamined under current weather conditions with wind chills projected to be near-0°F / -17.8°C.  Even without heat, an empty warehouse is warmer than being outdoors with no protection from the winds.

10 thoughts for December 5, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. People still don't get it.  Bitcoins can't operate as a currency if it is volatile.  You and I can agree on a USD value for services rendered, because we know that the USD will not inflate or deflate in value, rapidly.  Bitcoins however, are not quick transactions, and in the 30+ minute wait for confirmation, the price may shoot up or drop like a rock.  Then what?  Do you take the loss?
2. And just exactly what sort of regulation do people think will stabilize prices?  The only regulation that I know of, to stabilize prices, is a Central Bank's manipulation of the monetary supply -- exactly what Bitcoin was meant to avoid.  Regulation as legitimization of Bitcoins doesn't offer stabilization; again, Bitcoins has a finite supply, and this shoots back to the Krugman story about the babysitting co-op.
3. As I said yesterday, the DA would state that he did not have enough evidence to effectively prosecute Jameis Winston.  It does not mean that Winston was exonerated, and I reiterate that if the DA had taken this to the grand jury instead of keeping it within his office, I believe that the grand jury would have voted to proceed to trial.  At least, it would have resulted in a pre-trial motion to force a judge to determine if there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
4. Speaking of which, this quote strikes me as particularly naive: "we must trust in the Florida judicial system that it is fair."  If the DA trusted the system, he would have allowed the system to process this rape allegation in the normal protocols, right?
5. Not to belabor the issue around Winston, but this would mark the third Heisman candidate in four years whose moral character was under heavy scrutiny for questionable actions, and voters found someone to alleviate their conscience.  We had Cam Newton, Johnny Maziel and now Jameis Winston.  Voters need to get a clue: They're part of the problem.
6. The father of modern South Africa -- Nelson Mandela -- died.  At age 95, considering all the hardships he has gone through in his lifetime, I think it's fair to say that this man had an indomitable spirit for living.  Mandela is indelibly linked to the history of South Africa and the rights of all people all around the world, to be treated equally.
7. I spoke too soon about Pinterest pulling back from its experiment to include pins they think you'll like...today, a board full of crap.  And once again it appears that I might have to stop using Pinterest.
8. Russian diplomats scamming Medicaid?  WTH?  How in the world did they get their applications past the front desk?
9. T'was 28°F / -2.2°C outside tonight when I roamed around with the dog, with shorts.  It was a little chilly.  :D  It's supposed to drop to 12°F / -11.1°C in a couple of days...you know I'm going to go outside with shorts on, just to test my will!
10. The US 2013 Q3 GDP was raised to an annualized 3.6% gain.  Economists have taken to downtalking the number because the personal consumption expenditures (PCE / consumer spending) number has been declining, but that decline is modest.  Another look shows a stronger correlation of GDP growth to the recovery of federal spending from steep cuts.  Or as I keep harping on: Total GDP includes public spending.

Pantone's 2014 color of the year.

Pantone just released its 2014 color of the year -- the color they expect to be the trend for 2014 -- Radiant Orchid, 18-3224.

Now, it's not quite the same color, and while anyone who used a shade of fuschia would be able to make such a claim, I think it a funny coincidence that my client asked for a color scheme built around the future, not the present, and one of the color schemes I developed for the project includes a grayer shade of fuschia.

Kind of neat, don't you think?  Well, at least I think it's a nice coincidence.  

When the project is completed, I'll have full pictures of the richness of colors used in this space.  By the way, zero white walls.

10 thoughts for December 4, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. This story is somewhat misleading.  To recap: 2M passwords compromised, but unlike the Adobe breach (or any other breach) this one involves a virus keylogger.  So, those 2M passwords compromised are actually 2M people who downloaded a virus.  Of course, the original source conflates password strength (length and complexity) with this breach, which only serves to confuse people and the journalists who write about these things.  Sigh.
2. FSU's quarterback, Jameis Winston was awarded ACC player of the year today.  Tomorrow the state AG will release its findings.  I'll go out on a limb and explain that the AG will say that there isn't enough evidence to prosecute Winston on rape charges.  But here's they key: The AG will not bother to present its investigation to a grand jury because the grand jury would not hesitate to vote to charge Winston with a felony and let a trial jury figure it out.  If any other person without the celebrity status, the AG would have quickly sent it to the grand jury and the grand jury would have voted to take it to trial, but it's not entirely fair to say that there is bias at play.  What's driving the decision is whether the AG, knowing how the police botched the initial complaint, will have enough evidence to avoid a jury nullification vote.
3. We now know that there are at least 5 exoplanets with water.  So, why are we trying to send humans to Mars?  I know, it's baby steps, but really, don't you rather that we shoot for a place that is actually livable?  On a side note: I realize that NASA and others place a premium on studying planets without disturbing them, but it might be time to look towards propagating humanity.
4. Consecutive record lows about to be broken in Portland and elsewhere in Oregon and Washington this week.  The last time the temps were this cold, was several years ago in the middle of Winter, not at the end of Fall.  We're talking 15°F / -9.4°C for a couple of days!  I don't think I've ever experienced that cold of temperatures in Portland, since I moved here 18 years ago.  Sounds like a great time to make it over to Multnomah Falls, no?
5. It's not really that cold if the wind isn't blowing.  I've written about this before: I can withstand about 18°F / -7.8°C in shorts, unless it's blowing.
6. It's difficult to comprehend, but apparently there are some GOP lawmakers who advocate bombing of Iran with nuclear weapons.  Every country has its nutty, dangerous lawmakers, and the US is no exception.
7. Just 21 days until Christmas -- three weeks.  Time is ticking like crazy in my head right now, because I always miss those deadlines for getting custom-printed / made products ordered.
8. Hundreds of millions of mobile devices being tracked by the NSA.  No wonder they need to scale up storage server farms. They're trying to keeping track on every piece of hay, just to find the handful of needles in that haystack.  Talk about inefficient program.  Just imagine the scale of database they're building, and you can see the problems emerging.
9. By the way, many headline writers got their information mixed up.  There aren't 5B cellular phones being tracked around the world, daily.  Rather, there are 5B records being collected daily.  If the NSA tracked 5B mobile devices, that'd be nearly 3/4 of all cellular phones in the world.  (ITU says there were 6.8B phones in the world in 2013.)
10. Speaking of the internet, there is no proof that what goes on the internet stays on the internet forever.  To wit: If someone decides to delete stuff, it's gone.  Sure, Google will save a cache of the internet for a period of time, and they do keep records of its users.  However after a certain period all that data is anonymized and untethered from your persona, and eventually cached website data disappears.  Perhaps the federal government needs to require the NSA to keep its data for forever, for the sake of posterity?

10 thoughts for December 3, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. Goodbye Groupon.  You're the only service that won't give my money back, no questions asked.  I'm sticking with Amazon Local and Google Offers.  It wasn't that you used copy-and-paste text to respond to my email...no wait, actually that was offensive.  And then to follow that email with a response with more copy-and-paste?  Uh.  You lost me, people.  That was some of the worst customer service, ever.
2. That's not to say that Google Offers is an ideal replacement, but with Amazon Local, I've got both bases covered.  Actually, Google refunded me for an offer I bought and used, out of the blue, a couple of years after the fact.  Google is in good graces; Groupon is on the poopy list, and I might drop them completely and shut down my account soon.
3. Speaking of Google, Andy Rubin, father of Android and formerly head of Android team, had left Android to work on special projects within Google, earlier this year.  At the time, people (Apple and Microsoft fanbois, I presume) were spreading rumors about why he left.  Well, it turns out he's interested in robots and Google has been on a buying binge to assemble the knowledge power and capabilities to bring about a revolution in robotics.
4. Ugh.  Don't watch Monday's Nightline.  Okay, go watch it.  It's a crazy story of a woman who tried to initially cover up her sister's actions, but be prepared to see a woman who once resembled Jabba the Hutt, but ended up losing 800 pounds -- yes, you read that right -- and is no longer morbidly obese (she's still quite a bit overweight, though).
5. Oh my...Seattle Seahawks completely demolished New Orleans Saints on MNF, became the first team to qualify for the playoffs and took back the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd noise with 137.6 decibels.  In power rankings, there's no doubt that they're #1.  Which of course makes their visit to SF a huge game this coming Sunday.  But here's the secret to Seattle's surge: A healthy offensive line with all of its starters back.
6. Seattle is so good, their backups are as good or better than some other teams' starters.  The team that everyone wants to play on?  Seattle.  The team whose waived players were picked up the most by other teams?  Seattle.  Damn, Pete Carroll is accomplishing at Seattle what he did at USC.
7. With Steve Sarkisian's hiring, an interesting thing happened: Former players were thrilled and singing the praise of Sark while current players were in mourning that they lost a father, Ed Orgeron.  I think that Pat Haden was trying to set up the USC football program for long-term success far beyond the next season or two.  Ed deserves a head coaching job to be sure, but I think Sark's a worthy successor.  Sometimes people forget that Sark was a very good quarterback at BYU, and an excellent quarterback coach at USC.  The quarterbacks at USC have got to be excited that Sark will be coaching them.
8. The Chinese initially contributed just $100K to humanitarian efforts in the Philippines, and a month later has created -- yet another -- unilateral declaration of its rights to air space over the South China Sea, a dispute with the Philippines.  That's rather odious.
9. A look at my Pinterest home screen and it looks like those folks got the message: They've removed pins from strangers, just because their pins appear to be related to content that I'm interested in.  That was a self-defeating move in the first place, to place the pins of strangers alongside those of people I followed.
10. I track prices of stuff I want, so Cyber Monday and Black Friday have no practical meaning; they are a distraction actually, because there is a lot of crap you have to wade through to find the handful of deals.  Looks like some other folks are only now just discovering what I've previously mentioned about these "sales".

10 thoughts for December 2, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. This is a major annoyance, and I was actually contemplating making an entire post to critique it: Google Keep.  The Android app allows you to shuffle the position of each note in your stack of notes, and each list item within a note.  But go over to the browser-based version via your desktop computer, and you can't do any of that.  Talk about damned annoying!
2. Staying on Google, now that the Nexus 7 FHD 2013 edition has been out for some time, the 2012 accessories are available on the cheap.  If you know where to look, you can grab that pogo plug (contact) charger for less than half the official price.  Same goes for some of the official Asus covers.
3. By the way, speaking of shopping, you can get the Studio Ghibli Movie Collection DVD collection via Amazon for fairly cheap.  No, they're not from Disney so don't expect English dub, not that you'd want to listen to that junk anyway.  They do come with English subtitles.
   
4. Speaking of Amazon, they're looking into the possibility of using drones to deliver packages within a limited radius of its fulfillment centers.  Apparently they have some 89 warehouses...I guess none near me, though, as I've never seen anything shipped from within Oregon to me.  (Note that the original story comes via CBS' 60 Minutes, but I've got an active boycott on 60 Minutes for its failure in meeting basic reporting standards, and worse, a failure to correct their protocols.)
5. People who use Androids are, for the most part, using Windows or Linux PCs, and not Apple computers.  I just can't see how Microsoft plans to win market share (in tablets and smartphones) by targeting the Apple crowd and their closed garden with their own closed garden.
6. It's about to get a lot colder this week, or as I told some folks: Winter is already here and this'll be a snowy Winter.  Ranges for overnight lows in Portland are from 18°F / -7.8°C to 22°F / -5.6°C with daytime highs no more than 35°F / 1.7°C.  Even though this doesn't disprove anthropogenic global warming, you just know there are going to be a lot of fools remarking so.  (Hint: They're the same people who shut up and ignore the record heat days.)
7. Moo.com has another 25% off sale going on, today and tomorrow (Dec. 2, 3).  Actually, they've got 24 days of Christmas Countdown announcements.  If you've never used them to get stuff printed, you're missing out.  Their paper stock and print quality far exceeds Cafepress, even if they're limited in what type of items they're able to print.  I'm hoping one day they'll get on to printing out stationary sheet sizes and envelopes with full bleed -- that way, you'll be able to easily produce complete ID packages for people across the country from your home or office.  Once you've tried their Luxe, you'll never go back.
8. Cyber Monday's meaning has been lost on Dell -- they're using it to advertise business-side deals.  Nonetheless, most of the deals out there in cyberspace are not extreme bargains.  If you shop online enough and know how to track prices, then you'll figure out how to get similar prices throughout the year.
9. Speaking of Cyber Monday, a lot of online sites have their stuff staggered so they don't reveal everything at the start of the morning.  Rakuten and others have been sending me multiple emails all day long with different deals.
10. Holy cow, did you hear?  Steve Sarkisian was offered and accepted the head coaching job at USC.  Now, he's obviously wiser than Lane Kiffin; to wit, he declined the same Oakland Raiders head coaching job that Kiffin took, then lost in less than 2 years.  Ed Orgeron is the patriarch of the team, though, so keeping him on board is the highest priority.

10 thoughts for December 1, 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. Do people shop for gifts or for themselves during Black Friday weekend?  I never buy gifts on Black Friday or Cyber Monday -- I do shop for myself, though.
2. The most important socialist in the world: The Pope.  Why, just last week he issued a Papal Exhortation saying that Man does not serve Capitalism, but that Capitalism serves Man, with the intention to improve the lives of all, not just a few.  He is a Jesuit, after all, and is trying to carry over his constant acts of charity into his papacy.
3. IKEA now sells an induction cook top...for $999.  If I had a house with a big enough kitchen to separate out my cook top and ovens, I'd get it.  Faster, more even heating than anything else out there.
4. Speaking of IKEA, Portland IKEA is serving roast beef with mushroom sauce for this month's special.  Too bad I've been too busy to take the day off and get out there.  I think I might have some time this week, though. :D
5. If point differential (points scored minus points allowed) determined a team's ranking, the 5-7 NY Jets would be second to worst in the NFL with a -121 point differential.  Their 5-7 record is heavily misleading.  Some other 5-7 teams: Pittsburgh @ -15; Tennessee @ -3; St. Louis @ +1; San Diego @ +2.
6. For a very long time, I'd thought that Gus Malzahn would make a great head coach at USC -- I suggested that USC hire Gus Malzahn when Pete Carroll left.  It does not surprise me that Auburn is now the top SEC team.  Too late to hire him now.  Back then, he was just an offensive coordinator.  Just his first year as head coach and he's turned a 3-9 team into a 11-1 one.
7. Vanderbilt's James Franklin as a potential head coach at USC?  I don't see it.  Half of their eight victories were against teams with a combined 5 wins (Austin-Peay, UMass, UAB and Kentucky), and the only victory over a team with a winning record was against Georgia.
8. Boston Globe reporters demonstrate that they don't know what "back-end" means.  The front-end of the ACA federal website was never broken.  What they meant to say, is that a portion of the back-end hasn't yet been fixed -- the part of transmitting correct data.  That should strike some folks as odd, because medical XML should have been standardized and therefore a very easy thing to code to send to insurers, and if US insurers haven't standardized their XML after a decade, the whole healthcare situation in the US is truly f'd up.
9. Comcast must think people are idiots.  Do they really believe that people will stop cutting the cord if they allow people to watch videos off the internet and use voice commands on their TV DVR boxes?  All it proves, is that they in fact can deliver TV over IP and that they have the crappiest remote control.
10. On the last game of the season, following up with the bad news that one of their players died from drowning earlier in the morning, Hawai'i finally won a game -- the only game of the season.  By the way, did you know that they renamed themselves from the Rainbows ('Bows) to the Warriors to the Rainbow Warriors?