Past Thoughts
Thoughts from a former me.
It has become something of a tradition in IT circles, particularly in Software Development, to trash your predecessor. There are a number of perfectly valid reasons to do so, of course. The old guy isn't there any more and he took with him a good chunk of institutional knowledge that is now lost--things like what were they thinking when they did that. And you want to look good to your new boss, the simplest way being to trash the guy who left him in the lurch by leaving or who got himself fired for (presumably) plenty sufficient reason.
Knowing the tradition...
There's a "letter" making the rounds lately on the internet--a supposed "apology" to Americans by a Canadian. It's unbelievably condescending and with a primary purpose of attacking us. Now, I know a number of Canadians of sense and good taste and I say that not just because I tend to agree with them. At the very least, they wouldn't stoop to such ugly tactics as to embed a snide attack in the veneer of humor. Now, the advent of this letter happens to coincide with a number of recent communications I've had with other friends from Canada that contained really...
Poor me. A month or so ago, I received an email from a member of an online religious discussion group I enjoy. A prior post of mine had confused him because (in so many words) it expressed sympathy and compassion and he hadn't known that I could do that. In effect, his email was meant to encourage me in my softer side. I thanked him and responded to specific points he had made. Since I never heard from him again, I'm relatively certain that I offended him afresh and that my compassion has been safely filed in his mind among...
The World Wildlife Fund has released a "report" that claims the Earth can only last till 2050 at the most. I suspect that this little cultural artifact will bring much amusement in 48 years time. The details of our "plundering" include things like deforestation, disappearing species, and certain fish stocks dwindling. I'll let Bjorn Lomborg carry the brunt of countering those claims, mainly because he did such a fine job of it. What I want to point out is that the real aims of the environuts is readily ascertained,
Matthew Spencer, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said: 'There will have to...
Renter beware. I've heard a number of technology companies lately extol the great virtues of renting—both hardware and software. They sell the concept to their investors and shareholders and talk about the wonderful revenue stream they will build. And I'm afraid that is all that they see. As such, they are doomed to failure. There will be a backlash, mark my words. The thing is, as pointed out in Infoworld,
But we don't see any vendor propaganda promising that we'll save money by renting.
In fact, companies moving to rental are missing a fundamental rule of business—the customer is king. The...
Immigration in general is going to be something that gets a lot of attention in the coming decade so I should probably take some time to articulate my position. The latest census shows that we had a record breaking decade in immigration growth, even when measured in terms of population percentages. Personally, I think that immigrants are what make this country so great. We keep skimming off the risk-takers of other countries and it has rebounded to our benefit a hundred fold. Frankly, immigration stands a good chance of off-setting a small population bomb scheduled to hit us in a...
I have to admit that I'm pretty antagonistic to teachers' unions. The central truth about teachers' unions is that teachers' unions don't now, and never have, represented the best-interest of children. I don't know how they got this one over on people—this assumption that they are merely seeking to make education better and thus help children—but they have and it is high time they have that mantle of glamour removed. Teachers' unions do not represent, or seek in any way, the best interests of children. Teachers' unions seek the best interests of teachers. If there is any group in the...
Attack! One of the fundamental rules of business I have learned is that to succeed, you must attack the leader. If your efforts aren't geared to become better than the current #1, then you don't really have any justification for existence. Find the weaknesses, become more efficient, discover hidden customer wants.
Attacking yourself is a problem with Sun Microsystems. They just don't seem able to do it. Oh, they do okay when they’re in the pack somewhere competing for profits, but whenever they find themselves ahead, they have a tendency to sit back and enjoy the scenery. But even worse...
The post-40 mother seems to be the topic of the day, particularly with Mother's Day so near. I watched a late-night women's issues show earlier this week and one topic they covered is the dangers of having babies post-40. They discussed how women don't seem to give enough weight to this difficulty and that they delay having children too long due to career and other achievements. Some of the women (the panel had a good mix of conservative and liberal women, actually--it was a good discussion) bemoaned the fact that men didn't have the same restrictions and could have children...
Like so many others this week, I've been stunned as I try to process the enormity of events in New York and Washington D.C. And now, like so many others who are emerging from their ruminations, I feel compelled to add my own thoughts to those churning around on the internet and in personal conversations. Most of you who are reading this have already read one thing after another on this tragedy. In fact, many have already expressed what I am feeling, much better than I could say it. You'd have a tough time not hearing essentially what I am...
I read an interview a couple years ago that has stuck with me in odd ways. Some magazine interviewed the inventor of the Ethernet (not a tool for catching the Ether bunny). Ethernet is the most popular way to network computers in a close geographical area. I have a small Ethernet network here at home, and any of you who have a network connection at work probably use Ethernet, too. Before the Ethernet concept, network traffic was highly regulated in order to insure that no data was lost in transition. There were strict rules--each computer had to know exactly where...
A lot has been written about drugs and whether we should decriminalize certain "recreational" drugs. I have already written one essay on how this issue eventually divorced me from the Libertarian party. Well, the issue of "medical marijuana" has become something of a hot topic and I'd like to express my thoughts on what is going on.
The thing is, I think it is a real shame that we are unable to approach marijuana research rationally in the United States. Sure, marijuana is a drug. So is morphine. So is aspirin for that matter. And so is Ritalin which, by the...
"Capitalism: The system of modern countries in which the ownership of land and natural wealth, the production, distribution, and exchange of goods, and the operation of the system itself, are effected by private enterprise and control under competitive conditions." --Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1945
There has been a lot of criticism of capitalism lately. The most common charge is that capitalism promotes greed. In fact, in many circles including popular media and entertainment, capitalism tends to be synonymous with greed. A popular movie in the last decade starred Michael Douglas (I think) in a role where he played a CEO who lived...
I'd like to point some things out about the ongoing debate about prescription drugs. This is important stuff, so please bear with me.
The latest hue and cry by budding socialists is the cost of prescription drugs. There are a lot of reasons for this and I'd like to explain my position a little bit. The price of prescription drugs makes a great target for several reasons. First off, drugs are life-saving and it becomes tragic when a poor person cannot afford to save (or even just improve) their life because the cost of doing so is too high. Obviously, we...
Napster has been in the news a lot lately with legal injunctions pending in the appeals court ruling against them. Copyright is a tricky issue and one that I think is very important. The problem is, in our modern era, copyright is tied to the distribution channels. You will notice that the law suit against Napster was brought not by artists (though Metallica is certainly a driving force behind the RIAA suit) but by an industry organization put together primarily by distributors.
I think this is the heart of the true problem. The thing the Internet fundamentally alters is not the...
I received a notice from one of my banks, today. They included a notice that beginning March 19th, they will begin processing my checks nightly from highest to lowest. They claim that this policy is enacted to ensure that my most important checks get paid first. This is pure BS. I hate this policy and have to vent some. I apologize for taking up your time with it, but I want everyone to know the real reason for this policy.
The truth is that they process from highest to lowest so that your balance will go down as fast as possible....
Some of you will likely be shocked by that subject coming in an email from me. That's right. I voted for a Democrat. You may be asking what it takes for me to vote for a Democrat. Okay. Here it is:
Four elements are required for me to vote for a Democrat. They must *all* be present or my vote goes to the Republican. Even wrong-headed Republicans are preferable to Democrats under most circumstances. That's because I am a conservative and Republicans at least tend in that direction (I know that's a simplification and that there are problems with the Republican...
It should be no surprise to any of you that I do not like Al Gore. It will be no surprise if I tell you that I will vote against him in the coming election. What may surprise some of you is that if the current election were between Clinton and Gore, I would chose Clinton and be grateful of the choice.
I'll explain. Clinton is absolutely shameless in his pandering to his special interest supporters. He rewards contributors richly and he lies to every constituency in order to maximize their support for him. The payoff for his pandering has been...
I've been reading a lot lately about what the constitution does and does not say. So, just for kicks, I went and read the thing (available from the government if you get a similar urge). I looked for two things, mainly. First, I wanted to see in what ways the federal government was justified in taking our money in the first place. Second, I wanted to see in what ways the federal government was justified in spending our money on all the crap currently in our federal budget.
Well, the first thing that occurred to me is that the vast majority...
When Conservatives are Wrong
A lot has been said about some recent Supreme Court decisions. As plugged in to conservative activists as I am, I've received dozens of commentaries on the recent Supreme Court decision upholding a lower court ruling that a community near Santa Fe, Texas cannot have student-directed prayer before football games. Naturally, the conservatives are outraged. Suppression of church!
I became intrigued by this case when it was mentioned by one commentator that the original case was brought against the school by two families. One Jewish. The other Mormon. Now, for the two of you who may be unaware...
I Used to be a Libertarian
For some of you, it won't come as a great surprise that I carry a Libertarian Party ID. It might be new information to confirm it though. Just as it will likely be new to know that I was the party secretary for the SouthWest Washington Libertarian Party in Vancouver.
Like many in the party, I was initially sucked in by The World's Smallest Political Quiz. This quiz is remarkable because it introduces a new axis to give a two dimensional view of politics. You have the standard left-right, but you add a new dimension to...
Stupid or Corrupt
Some of you know I moved to Utah a little over a year ago. One of the odd things about Utah is the politics here. Utah seems to have an excess of well-meaning stupid people in office. I won't name names, but let's just say that the exposure to Utah's politicians on the local level has been an eye-opener. I think Utah has more honest politicians than most states, but what they have in honesty, they tend to make up for in stupidity.
So this got me to thinking. What is it about politics that seems to select for...
I've been thinking for some time on the merits of money. You see, I hope to make a lot of it. In fact, I am substantially better off than I have any right to expect or deserve. Frankly, that's what has started me thinking about it. What is it about money that we want so much?
What does money do?
I'll admit it, I seem to have a talent for accounting and basic economics so I like the concept of money. I mean, money makes things easy and almost all economists see money as needed for an economy to run at all....
I've been mostly supportive of Microsoft in their current legal troubles. I mean, it's hard to imagine a monopoly without a barrier to entry (beyond labor). There just isn't any valid barrier to entry in the OS market (as is amply proven by the Linux successes).
And even if MS is a monopoly, they shouldn't have legal trouble unless they are harming consumers. Note, consumers. Not competitors. As a programmer, I can tell you that MS has provided a great deal of benefit to consumers not just by providing a decent product. The greatest benefit is that by providing a pax...
The following list (or one similar) has been sent to me by a number of people--so I've decided to just post this response to all of you. Please don't be offended because I didn't respond privately.
I find this list misleading at best. Notice that it is all 'accused' and 'arrested'. Not convicted. The worst one is 'stopped' for drunk driving. I've been stopped for drunk driving and I've never been drunk in my life. You can be stopped for drunk driving if you make one too many lane changes. Or if a cop is suspicious and wants to check something...
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