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:: Thursday, January 19 2012 ::
I use Google Plus. I admit it. I kind of like it better than facebook. I know - that's weird. But I do. I like the circles - I like being able to use it like twitter and facebook combined. Since I do use it a bit like twitter, I tend to make my posts public. Not all of them, but many of them. And since I am nearly the only person who uses Plus, I figured I might as well push my public posts to twitter and facebook as well. Why not? And this is where things started to go off the rails. First off, there's the question of how do I even get things across the platforms? Thanks to the fact that a lot of money rests on which social network 'wins', it's not that easy. I finally found a tool (Rob McGee) that pushes things across. But, of course, if I'm pushing things to twitter, I need some sort of link shortener. And since I also like to know whether anyone is reading what I write, I used one that lets me track clickthroughs - bit.ly. So now let's review - say I'm reading an article on how other animals are much better dancers than penguins, and I want to share it. My current workflow is: (1) copy the story URL and (2) paste it into the bit.ly box. (3) Copy the shortened URL and (4) post it into the Google Plus status update box. (5) Write something pithy that is less than 140 characters. (6) Add Rob McGee to the post so it will be sent to twitter and facebook, and, finally, (7) hit the post button. On my phone (and I'm sure I could find a plug-in for my browser), I can hit the menu on my browser and say 'share this to facebook'. Someday I hope - I really hope - I can do the same with all my social networks at once. But I've a sneaky suspicion it's going to get worse before it gets better.
:: Wednesday, January 18 2012 :: Fads or phases in music are funny things. I heard a new (to me) artist on the radio, Rachel Platten (the song was 1,000 Ships), and she reminded me of Regina Spektor (of Fidelity fame, among others). Which made me wonder if in fact there was a 'Regina Spektor school of music' that had been kicked off. Further research reminded me that Regina Spektor was, at least in some circles, seen as a progeny of Tori Amos - which seemed a bit of a stretch to me. But I do remember Amos seeming to kick off her own cycle of female musicians (and being seen as a descendent of Kate Bush, which also seemed a stretch to me at the time). But it's also worth noting that right now the female vocalist is fairly popular - something to do with Glee and Adele, I think. It's all crazy complicated, but the idea that all of these pop phenomena feed each other and lead to each other is fun, if complicated to work through.
:: Tuesday, December 20 2011 ::
Whups! Someone linked here, and my last post was an incoherent mess relating to the ongoing development I'm doing on the software running the blog. Guess I should write something sensible. Probably about Kim Jong Il, since that's the big news this week that everyone should probably be talking about. But frankly, it's kind of pointless, since noone knows anything, and I'd just be repeating what other people who don't know anything have already said. To demonstrate, I'll point you to this short interview with Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea, who says 'we don't know anything'. And then proceeds to speculate.
:: Monday, December 19 2011 ::
Still not there, but it's getting a lot better. I feel ok about the fact that the styling isn't where I want it to be - if I can't see everything right now, at least I can see it becoming what I want it to be. I think I'm done with the programming on this side for right now - just the styling now. At least for this particular function - I still need to update it so comments display on the same page as the permalink, instead of having two copies of every story someone comments on. Ideally, I'll figure out how to use facebook's silly stuff to do comments, and allow those to be posted but without having to use the FB comments for everything. We'll see how that all goes at a much later date.
:: Sunday, December 18 2011 ::
In the spirit of the weekend, I did some crazy programming on my blog. It's not done yet, but I've done it in such a way that I don't need to finish it all at once. Which is good, because although I had it working hours ago, styling it and making the facebook plugin work on it is killing me. So I'll leave it where it is, and we'll see if this posts, or blows up terribly!
:: Saturday, December 17 2011 :: I've been thinking for a while that it would be nice to be able to post to my blog as easily as I post to social media sites. Blog posts would not be fun from my phone (I can already do that, anyway), but being able to post a photo from my phone would be nice. So I decided I would write an app. And this is where things went off the rails. This post will get technical from here, but I'll try to keep it readable by non-tech folk. The first thing I needed to do was to figure out... well, what I needed to do. So I hit a few websites, basically looking for directions on how to write my first app (by tradition, this a program that simply prints "Hello, world!" on the screen). I found several pages that all told me the basic steps (this one is an example). Sadly, although the information in the post was good, Google's support of developers does not seem to be - their servers spent most of a day rejecting requests for the files. So eight hours later I'm no closer to being able to write a program than I was when I started. I'm considering giving up for the day and doing something more fun than watching paint dry.
:: Friday, December 9 2011 ::
It would be tremendously funny if it weren't... not funny: I just noticed my post from November 1st commenting on the European debt crisis. One month later... same old, same old. It's amazing how these things go. On some level, I wonder if it's not the old 'how to boil a frog' business - rates creep upward, and nobody pays attention until, hey presto! you're boiled!
:: Wednesday, November 9 2011 ::
Possibly as a reaction to the whole Greek/Italian debt fiasco, I decided to do something completely different: I wrote a small article answering the question Is an "audiophile" turntable really better?
:: Tuesday, November 1 2011 ::
I swear if someone were actually writing the script, this whole Greek debt fiasco could not look more like a keystone cops caper. Germany wants a deal, no they don't, yes they do. Greece wants a deal, no they don't, yes they do. And the whole time, like a zany flagpole sitter losing his balance, the stock market is up, then down, then up, then down.
:: Thursday, October 27 2011 :: Vaccines are important. If you do not maintain full vaccination, you get outbreaks. Like below...
:: David (13:37 in Arkansas, 20:37 in Paris) - Comment :: Wednesday, October 19 2011 ::
One of the things I've been reminded of since the economic crisis started is the way that the ... I'm actually having trouble deciding on what to call them - progressives? - have been reacting to the right by adjusting their rhetoric to one of two levels - understated or shrill. The fact is that since the whole 'war on terror' mess began, everything spoken at a normal volume - concerns, for example, about the AAA status of certain investments - was ignored. So people got hyperbolic about it, and then they were dismissed as crazies. So they tone it down, and then get ignored because their concerns are isolated, or just not that important / concerning. So you end up being damned either way. I raise this because of the recent arrest of Naomi Wolf. Now I will confess I have a soft spot in my heart for Ms. Wolf - everything I learned about, well, a lot, I learned from her books in my late high school / early college years. But as I've grown older I've also come to recognize that she can be a bit 'over the top', as it were. And the article linked above is no different - it tells the story of her arrest, and closes with a paraphrase of a quote that gets used a bit too often, in too many situations: "first they come for the 'other' – the 'terrorist', the brown person, the Muslim, the outsider; then they come for you". In a related article she calls the permit system put in place to prevent groups from gathering as "Stalinist". But again, how do you say, politely, 'many of our civil rights are being eroded, and noone is doing anything about it' - and once you've said it, and been dismissed, how do you keep saying it politely?
:: Monday, October 17 2011 ::
The Occupy movement seems to have seized the attention of the nation for the moment, which has been interesting in a number of ways. Locally, it is clear there is a contingent that still think the first protestors (that is to say, the ones from 1968) were mistaken. Whoa. But then there's the current environment, which has some pointing out, correctly on some level, that they are an unorganized rabble, versus those who believe they are the real standard-bearers of popular sentiment. The former is best represented by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who called them "mobs". The latter appears to be voiced in part by Paul Krugman (for example, here). Some are even calling it Krugman's Army. (An unrelated aside - Krugman's smack down of Russ Roberts made me smile a lot) Now the movement has traction, and some are pointing out that defending wall street is not a winning strategy, most likely. Meanwhile others are trying to figure out how corporate America should respond. All in all, this is a nice time to be an American. We'll see where we go next...
:: Friday, October 7 2011 ::
So many people find the site via my anti-globalization paper I wrote back in grad school, that I feel I should update it for the current era. Apparently, and unexpectedly, I need a sabbatical!
:: Wednesday, October 5 2011 ::
Steve Jobs has passed away, which feels both like the end of an era, and like the beginning of the end of an era - sort of like the elves passing to the West - it's hard to think of Jobs without thinking of Gates, and although Gates has already 'diminished' (by moving on to arguably much more important work) he has not left us. I grew up with both their work: my first computer class was on an Apple II; my first computer was a Packard Bell 80286 running MS-DOS 3.3. We're in a different world now, one that I think Steve, in part, led us into. Rest in peace.
:: Thursday, September 22 2011 :: So I have a swanky new Google Plus widget I was going to add to my website: but it turns out I don't have FTP access to my server. Nor have I for the past three days. I really need to move to another server - I also really need, one of these days, to figure out what sort of development platform I want to use to run this thing on, and get all that set up. All in my copious spare time...?
:: Thursday, September 8 2011 ::
So I went looking for information to debunk my theories on negative real interest rates. First, let me share those: if the government can borrow money at two percent (which is the current rate on the 10 year treasury), then if the government can make an investment which exceeds a two percent annual rate of return, it should borrow the money and invest it, and turn a profit. This seems like basic, simple math to me. What I found were crazies who said this was crazy math because Democrats like to tax and spend. Which made me sad, because I'd really like to know if it is that simple, and if so, why we aren't borrowing up a storm?
:: Sunday, September 4 2011 ::
The August jobs numbers confirmed what has been in the wind for a while - the economy is not getting stronger, or at least not in the way that matters - creating jobs. I was talking to Sasha the other day about how I feel that I already know what historians will say about this period in the future - the same thing we say about 1937. Rather, I should say, I expect them to say the same thing Keynesians say about it. Perhaps it's too simple an answer, but to me, when all the job losses each month are due to the government firing people, and every time a down month is announced the stock market tanks and confidence is shaken, perhaps you should stop firing people.
We took a nice trip to Malta this summer - at some point I hope to post the photos here - I've been using the social networks (facebook mostly) for photo sharing, which is faster and easier, but also means that the photos aren't really mine, at least online. Yet, somehow, publishing a bajillion photos here seems ... unprofessional? something like that. So in my head I'll choose the best, eliminate the rest, and make an amazing page of the pics. But really, it's hard to say if that will happen or not.
:: Saturday, July 2 2011 ::
I just finished watching 'The Smartest Guys in the Room', which is a documentary about the rise and fall of Enron (the wikipedia article has a good overview of the crash). It was truly creepy in how much it predicted the so-called great recession. There were several amusing moments where individuals said (in 2005) 'this could happen again' because the financial malfeasance was so widespread and the oversight so lax. They were right, and sooner than they probably thought. It also reminded me once again what an utter catastrophe in every possible sense the Bush years were. I look forward to the day, though I expect I will not live to see it, when people recognize what a failed experiment this whole business was, and the systematic way in which people were corrupted by greed. Unfettered free markets have always been, and will always be, a disaster. I like to imagine someday that will simply be recognized fact.
:: Thursday, June 30 2011 :: I've started using Google+, as they are calling it. It seems like it could be a contender, but then, so did Buzz. We'll see. In the meantime it makes me want to soup up my blog - add some likes, permalinks, etc. etc. As Sasha has left for London for a month I have some spare time, but I also have a list of projects three miles long. We'll see what, if anything, gets done. In the meantime, I think this should just drop a plus one right here:
:: David (21:29 in Arkansas, 4:29 in Paris) - Comment :: Sunday, June 26 2011 ::
We've spent the past several weekends getting to know Little Rock, exploring places we haven't visited before (and burning through a number of Groupons at the same time). This weekend it was Little Rock Central High, a national park devoted to civil rights (think the Little Rock Nine). Last weekend we finally found the art museum, and saw a travelling impressionists exhibit. We also found some super cool used goods at a place (Galaxy Furniture) in North Little Rock (we got an ash tray for the back porch). We also managed to swing by the home of some friends we have in Little Rock, who don't make it out our way as much now that they have twins to take care of. Overall we've had a busy couple of weekends, which has been really nice. And now we're gearing up for Sasha's trip to London and my month of grilling and home repair (or whatever it ends up being...).
:: Tuesday, June 7 2011 ::
June, 2011. We're fast approaching three years since the economy took a tumble (we're past by some measures, but September 2008 seems a good time to mark the date of public recognition that things had really gone off the rails). If there is a recovery, it's being awfully slow. The really distressing thing is that nothing is being done. The stimulus was weak to start, stopped too soon, and now everyone is talking further cuts. The incompetence of today will have repercussions for decades to come. And the most horrifying part is how the authors of the worst policies will continue to be elected, for those same decades.
:: Thursday, April 28 2011 ::
Over the past few weeks I've become quite entertained by the precious metals market. I dipped my toes, made a killing as silver shot up, and got out. I've since taken the profits I made and put them back in, betting against silver. In general, it's always interesting when a bubble is clearly visible (the term I've seen is 'going parabolic', because that's what the graph starts to look like, as the value goes straight up). People will argue fundamentals, and to some degree may be right, but on the other hand, other folks recognize that straight up is not how a stock should behave. And yet, 'missing out' is something you don't want to do, so you go in, even though it's going straight up. This doesn't really seem like a good way to run an economy.
:: Sunday, April 17 2011 ::
I'm kicking around the idea of writing a book. I'm not sure I have the stamina, given how often I can be bothered to even write a blog post. Of course, it's planting season now, so I have outside things to do, and those don't necessarily translate well to a blog. The story of the gate repair might, as it went from 'please fix this' to 'oh lord this will never be fixed ever' to 'close enough!', but somehow posting home repair stories isn't something I envisioned myself doing, ever. Not that I pictured much of this, ten years ago (I was wrapping up in Japan, and the world was literally my oyster. My scary, what do I do now, oyster). So if you'd like to picture my life in Arkansas, think of all the things a homeowner does, and repeat. Not yet ad nauseum - I'm still quite enjoying the house, and all the mysteries thereof.
:: Monday, March 28 2011 ::
Hm. Hackers got me again. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to move hosts...
:: Saturday, March 5 2011 ::
The word on the street is 'falling wages' (yes, I know - two words). For examples see here, here, and here. This has always been part of the globalization deal - as competition comes online from places where workers are able to work for less, wages have to fall. Eventually the cost of living in, for example, China rises, causing wages there to rise, and eventually meet our new lower wage level, and equilibrium is again achieved. But this all happens slowly. All of this is basic economics, and the argument for open markets has always said that some people will lose in the short term. I heard one economist note recently that those people have stopped believing people who tell them they will gain, because they've never seen the gain, only the loss, and the theoretical transfers that your Econ 101 textbook posits as a solution to the problem never materialize. We just stick it to some people, and revel in our cheaper goods. Now the effect is being felt a little more broadly....
:: Wednesday, March 2 2011 :: I'm kicking around the idea of incorporating facebook's new commenting system into the blog. For those of you that haven't heard about this, it posts any comments you make back to facebook, and then, and this is the crazy part, posts any responses your friends make on your facebook page back to the blog. Pretty viral. Maybe a little scary. Of course, at the same time, I'm considering whether or not I should stick with facebook. They've now said they're going to start selling our phone numbers and addresses, which is not really kosher to me. So I'm back to the question of whether or not I'm willing to continue allowing FB to have that info....
:: Sunday, February 27 2011 ::
You know, this is anecdotal, but I just noticed that in my traffic, almost all of the top ten search terms that bring people to the site are variations on 'anti globalization movement'. This is interesting to me because before the economic downturn, that traffic had waned - I actually thought the whole concept had passed (don't get me wrong - I didn't think the problems had all been solved, merely that noone was talking about them anymore). And now here we are, the world economy in a mess, and people, it would seem, are moving back to some of the bigger questions. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. Not only in the short term, as it looks like humanity has lost this round, but also in the long term - I think that will be more interesting, as we see the impact this has on peoples' psyches.
:: Sunday, February 20 2011 ::
I kind of want to start a blog called 'omitted variable bias' which looks at all the ways in which, before any analysis of a situation occurs, people have already made assumptions about the causes which lead to everything they say being wrong.
:: Saturday, February 5 2011 ::
As the economy continues to creep along, slowly, slowly improving, a blip has seemingly appeared: in January we barely created any jobs at all. Calculated Risk notes that "This was significantly below expectations for payroll jobs. Weather may have been a factor", a sentiment I heard echoed on NPR. 'The economy is good, it's just that there was too much cold, snowy weather.' My first thought to this was to wonder what exactly was good about an economy where not only had people not gotten jobs, they had also been exposed to terrible winter weather (and one presumes, another month of high heating bills, with no income to pay them with). changed the way they measure unemployment, specifically "a change affecting data collected on unemployment duration was introduced in the household survey in January 2011. Previously, the Current Population Survey could record unemployment durations of up to 2 years. Starting with data collected for January 2011, the survey can record unemployment durations of up to 5 years." Ouch.
:: Thursday, February 3 2011 ::
:: David (23:06 in Arkansas, 6:06 in Paris) - Comment The developments in Egypt have consumed much of my time over the last week (well, along with work etc.) - at one point, and I think this is the way you can tell when something important is happening in the world, we were all stopping to watch the news on the TVs at work to see what the latest was. It's fascinating to watch, but also scary - what does happen when a dictator who has destroyed all the other political parties steps down. Common wisdom is 'chaos'. It's funny when a country changes governments like this - you feel, from the outside, like anything is possible. In fact, many of the same old forces are in play, just in new ways. I don't, in my mind, expect some crazy group of terrorists to take over - I think there are those who would like you to see that as a possibility, but I don't think it is one. On the other hand, a little hostility towards the Western governments who have propped Hosni Mubarak up over the past 30 years might be expected.
:: Tuesday, January 25 2011 ::
This man needs to resign right now. The worst part isn't his reckless behaviour, though, it's every other part of the story. Elected officials immune from the law, a standing ovation from his colleagues in the senate for apologizing, it's all exactly how you think a corrupt, broken system should look. This is a farce, and a black eye for the state of Arkansas.
:: Monday, January 24 2011 ::
A long radio silence, as we spent December learning to SCUBA (the caps are apparently necessary-ish, as it is an acronym)(though I suppose if I'm using it as a verb, it is no longer an acronym...). We spent a week doing the books, a weekend doing the classroom time and pool time, and the rest of the time prepping for our crazy Christmas vacation to everywhere, which took us to Kalamazoo, Curacao, Aruba, and Boston. It also took us to several unexpected cities like Houston and Dallas when our flights were snowed out both going and coming. Although I managed to forget my real camera in the trunk of the car of the person who drove us to the airport, we did have Sasha's (formerly my - *sigh*) this video, which, if you skip the first two minutes, covers the place fairly nicely. Overall it was quite a trip, chockablock with random stories that I'm sure I'll think of as soon as I post this!
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