MacBeach

Amazon Glitch Hobbles Websites

2011-04-22T00:02:00.003-04:00

Haven't blogged for a while. Thought this might be worth it...

Technical problems at an Amazon.com Inc. data center caused several websites and Internet services like Foursquare and Reddit to crash or have limited availablity on Thursday.

Amazon, which rents Web servers and storage to companies, said it was experiencing "instance connectivity, latency and error rates" with a data center in northern Virginia that handles operations for the U.S. East Coast. The company said was working to correct the problem.

I've long predicted that if cloud technologies can take off they will go a long way toward putting Microsoft out of business (a positive outcome from my point of view). Even if Microsoft could be one of the cloud players (and no doubt they will try) the profit margins are *much* lower than they are used to making selling fiat certificates to use their products which were largely finalized in the 90s.

Apple will have this problem too. A big deal is made of their iTunes business, but they make most of their profits selling gadgets that fit into a narrow range... servers gone, desktops declining, iPods declining. In other words the company (and a very successful one) is now built on laptops and cell phones.

But the big cloud players now Google and Amazon to name two, are going to have to learn that not only are margins low, but risk is high.

Think about it... how many computers running Windows have lost or corrupted vital information? Countless. Yet Microsoft bears no responsibility, they make that clear in their TOS which essentially says "If our product turns out to be a piece of sh*t, don't come crying to us!"

The remarkable thing is that they have gotten millions of people to agree to this, including large corporations, government agencies. Who has bucked the trend? Banks, military, and intelligence agencies all of whom know they can't risk certain sensitive data and tasks to a half-assed *toy* operating system (that's pretty much what mainframers used to call windows and I think the implications are accurate).

Oh, lest you think I am a fanboi though, I am not satisfied that twenty years of lackadaisical attitudes about security have lulled even cloud proponents into a false sense of "who cares?"

I got an e-mail message from Google today telling me that some of the files (MP3s I guess) I've uploaded to Google Docs "might" be lost or to quote directly: "Your uploaded audio files should be fully restored at this time."

"Should be"? Well, are they or are they not? What am I supposed to do at this point, take an inventory? Listen to all 200 hours of them to make sure they are OK? Download them and do comparisons with my originals? Or just wait until some point in the future when I am totally dependent on them being all there and all correct only to find out that that is not the case?

I like the idea that my data in the Google cloud is "backed up" by being on multiple machines at any given time (is it two, or three or nine, they never say?) But is missing with todays cloud architectures, and what is probably not possible in the same way we did on mainframes (multi-generation back-up tapes going back months and years) is an "oooops" prevention system. Our existing cloud systems do nicely in handling the situation when a particular "cheap" server goes down. We've all read about that and it is marvelous.

But what about when a Google or Amazon employee slips up and runs a program that deletes all my files, and that deletion propagates to all the copies of all the files everywhere. Is that situation covered? What about when a lot of e-mail went missing a while back? Is that really acceptable? Yes, it's probably better than the aggregate e-mail lost from millions of Windows computers hundreds of thousands of which are probably in some state of brokenness at any given time, but remember, Microsoft has been saying "f*ck you" to users for years and getting away with it. They likely won't be so tolerant of Google or Amazon or even Microsoft saying the same thing when it comes to a *new* service which is highly touted as better in every way.

We've read in the past where the "bigtable" file system and other now generic components of cloud services can produce slightly imprecise results but results which satisfy the needs of search engines quite well. But do all these base components suit the needs of other cloud services which need solid uptime, perfect repeatability, perfect security and multi-level redundancy, to name a few?

The Cr-48 incorporates a "disposable" aspect to the hardware under our fingertips which I think has been missing since the mainframe days (IBM engineers could replace every component of a floor standing disk drive and recover every byte of data on the old drive in and hour or two, and a long repair might involve flying a part on a chartered airplane from the other side of the country). Users today, including as I mentioned many institutional users, are no longer used to that level of service. I hope the cloud, as it matures, and hopefully soon, spoils us once again.

RIP Euro

2010-12-03T19:57:00.000-05:00

Blogging as I don't know how to do a Buzz embed.

Still Blogging (theoretically)

2010-09-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

I'm still blogging, in theory anyway.

Reserving this space for long-form original content (rather than link-commentary).

Soon as I think of anything like that it will be here.

Maaybe.

In the mean time for regular updates:

http://www.google.com/profiles/macbeach#buzz

Mo. voters reject key provision of health care law

2010-08-04T01:05:00.000-04:00

"JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

With about 90 percent of the vote counted late Tuesday, nearly three-quarters of voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

The Missouri law would conflict with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014."

A Year and a Half of President Obama - Deroy Murdock - National Review Online

2010-07-20T22:33:00.000-04:00

As the Obama administration marks 18 months in power today, no one should be terribly surprised that it is the hardest-Left U.S. government since that of FDR. For those who paid attention, Obama’s hyperliberal U.S. Senate record pierced like a dive light through the squid ink of Hope and Change that Obama squirted at anyone who demanded programmatic specifics. (At 95.5 percent in 2007, according to the National Journal, Obama was the Senate’s No. 1 Left-liberal.)

However, after Obama’s nearly flawless campaign (rattled by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racist rants, but little else), the big surprise one and a half years after Obama’s momentous and truly moving inauguration is the staggering incompetence of his government. Like some Americans, I expected a nanny-state, socialist agenda from Obama & Co. However, I thought that at least they would manage things smoothly and professionally, in somewhat refreshing contrast to the general ineptitude of the detached, tongue-tied Bush-Rove years. Instead, what America and the world have witnessed is an extravaganza of frequent gaffes, blunders, and catastrophes...

Russian Spies and Strategic Intelligence | STRATFOR

2010-07-13T15:22:00.000-04:00

Good summary of how Russian spying works for anyone puzzled by recent headlines.

http://bit.ly/cTtg0u

Paul H. Rubin: Why Is the Gulf Cleanup So Slow? - WSJ.com

2010-07-02T14:25:00.000-04:00

First, the Environmental Protection Agency can relax restrictions on the amount of oil in discharged water, currently limited to 15 parts per million. In normal times, this rule sensibly controls the amount of pollution that can be added to relatively clean ocean water. But this is not a normal time.

Various skimmers and tankers (some of them very large) are available that could eliminate most of the oil from seawater, discharging the mostly clean water while storing the oil onboard. While this would clean vast amounts of water efficiently, the EPA is unwilling to grant a temporary waiver of its regulations.

Spy vs Spy

2010-06-29T18:34:00.000-04:00

Buzz by Mac Beach from Google Reader

2010-06-28T23:54:00.001-04:00

I spent 20 minutes doing a pretty good blog post as a Google Reader post. Rather than just repeat the whole thing here I'll point to it (click title) for ~~posterior~~ posterity. They say they keep Buzz and GReader stuff forever, but who knows. At least I can export my blog.

Related link

Test Posting with GoogleCL

2010-06-27T17:10:00.001-04:00

This is a test 1 2 3

State Department Anxious About Possible Leak of Cables to Wikileaks | Threat Level | Wired.com

2010-06-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

The State Department and personnel at U.S. embassies around the world are reportedly waiting anxiously to find out if an Army intelligence analyst was telling the truth when he boasted that he had supplied 260,000 classified State Department diplomatic cables to the whistleblower site Wikileaks.

If Wikileaks has the secret documents and publishes them, the leak could not only expose damaging information about U.S. foreign policy and national security issues, but also expose embarrassing information about backroom diplomatic deals and U.S. attitudes toward foreign leaders — such as the opinions of U.S. ambassadors about the honesty, integrity, and strength and longevity of those leaders.

Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed

2010-06-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

Apple has suffered another embarrassment. A security breach has exposed iPad owners including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians. They—and every other buyer of the wireless-enabled tablet—could be vulnerable to spam marketing and malicious hacking.

The breach, which comes just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, exposed the most exclusive email list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media, from New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to Diane Sawyer of ABC News to film mogul Harvey Weinstein to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It even appears that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's information was compromised.

Sayonara, iPhone: Why I'm Switching to Android - Newsweek

2010-06-05T23:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, Apple still has a larger installed base. I was a little shocked recently when an Apple spokesbot responded to the news of Android's outselling iPhone OS by reciting the old chestnut about Apple's having more phones out there.

I was shocked because it's a familiar line, one that I've heard countless times in my 20-plus years covering technology. But I've only ever heard it from companies that are doomed and in total denial about it.

FT.com / Technology - Google ditches Windows on security concerns

2010-05-31T23:44:00.000-04:00

FT.com / Technology - Google ditches Windows on security concerns:

"Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally."

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Let’s Get Small - Cringely on technology

2010-05-31T17:14:00.000-04:00

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Let’s Get Small - Cringely on technology

Cringely bets Facebook will ultimately fail. He has some interesting reasons too.

China pins food-security hopes on humble potato

2010-05-31T12:33:00.000-04:00

China pins food-security hopes on humble potato

The challenge of feeding a growing nation on a shrinking supply of arable land while confronting severe water shortages has long been a major concern here. China has to feed one-fifth of the world's population on one-tenth of its arable land, and the nation's expanding cities are consuming farmland at breakneck speed. China estimates that by 2030, when its population is expected to level off at roughly 1.5 billion, it will need to produce an additional 100 million tons of food each year.

The John Batchelor Show :: Conflict IPhones - De-Brief

2010-05-28T15:26:00.000-04:00

The John Batchelor Show :: Conflict IPhones - De-Brief

In Africa, the diamonds form the abusive fields are known as "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds" and are treated as taboo in Europe. Will our mobiles be known as a Conflict IPhones?

Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent - WSJ.com

2010-05-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent - WSJ.com
I wonder if the president knows what a disaster this is not only for him but for his political assumptions. His philosophy is that it is appropriate for the federal government to occupy a more burly, significant and powerful place in America—confronting its problems of need, injustice, inequality. But in a way, and inevitably, this is always boiled down to a promise: "Trust us here in Washington, we will prove worthy of your trust." Then the oil spill came and government could not do the job, could not meet need, in fact seemed faraway and incapable: "We pay so much for the government and it can't cap an undersea oil well!"

Acer, Sony Rev E-Reader Race - WSJ.com

2010-05-27T15:11:00.000-04:00

Acer, Sony Rev E-Reader Race - WSJ.com

Acer Inc. unveiled its first e-reader and touchscreen tablet computer, as the world's No. 2 personal computer maker seeks to bolster its presence in the increasingly competitive market for consumer gadgets.

Dan Danner: ObamaCare vs. Small Business - WSJ.com

2010-05-27T10:43:00.000-04:00

Dan Danner: ObamaCare vs. Small Business - WSJ.com
Supporters say the law will significantly help small businesses, focusing on the much-talked about small business tax credit. But the reality is that the tax credit is complex and very limited because firms qualify based on number of employees and average wages. The credit, which is only available for a maximum of six years, puts small business owners through a series of complicated "tests" to determine if they qualify and how much they will receive. Fewer than one-third of small businesses even pass the first three (of four) tests to qualify: have 25 employees or less, provide health insurance, and pay 50% of the cost of that insurance.

More importantly, the credit is temporary, but health-care cost increases are permanent. When the credit ends, small businesses will be left paying full price. They'll also be forced to deal with all sorts of new taxes, fees and mandates buried in this 2,000-page law.

One of these new taxes is a so-called health insurance fee. It's a massive $8 billion tax (that escalates to $14.3 billion by 2018) on insurance companies based on their market share. This tax will be paid almost exclusively by small businesses and individuals because the law specifically excludes self-insured plans, the plans that most big businesses and labor unions offer, from having to pay the tax.

Stocks Fall Amid Concern About Europe’s Economy - NYTimes.com

2010-05-20T18:27:00.000-04:00

Stocks Fall Amid Concern About Europe’s Economy - NYTimes.com
Get used to hearing these phrases again:

"How's that hope and change working out for ya?"

and

"Who's economy is it now?"

Mortgage delinquencies drag on economic recovery - Yahoo! Finance

2010-05-19T14:36:00.000-04:00

Mortgage delinquencies drag on economic recovery - Yahoo! Finance

Around 4.3 million homeowners, or about 8 percent of all Americans with a mortgage, are at risk of losing their homes, the trade group's top economist estimates. They have either missed at least three months of payments or are in foreclosure.

Power Play Over Immigration Law | NBC Los Angeles

2010-05-19T13:59:00.000-04:00

Power Play Over Immigration Law | NBC Los Angeles

In a letter to the city of LA, a member of Arizona's power commission said he would ask Arizona utility companies to cut off the power supply to Los Angeles. LA gets about 25 percent of its power from Arizona.

Obamacare hospitals killed: 60, with 200 on life support

2010-05-18T23:42:00.000-04:00

Obamacare hospitals killed: 60, with 200 on life support

Buried in the recently passed health-care reform bill is a new law granting one of the nation's largest corporate lobbyists what it has been targeting for years: Death to its competition, and, consequently, a heavy blow to patient choice.

Section 6001 of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is responsible for Obamacare's first casualties: a reported 60 physician-owned hospitals, which had promised to offer an innovative alternative to big, corporate and non-profit facilities, but under the new law are now "virtually destroyed," according to advocates. Another 200-plus doctor-owned hospitals already in existence may soon be put out of business by the health-care reform law.

Texas doctors fleeing Medicare in droves | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

2010-05-18T23:37:00.000-04:00

Texas doctors fleeing Medicare in droves | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

The uncertainty proved too much for Dr. Guy Culpepper, a Dallas-area family practice doctor who says he wrestled with his decision for years before opting out in March. It was, he said, the only way “he could stop getting bullied and take control of his practice.”

“You do Medicare for God and country because you lose money on it,” said Culpepper, a graduate of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “The only way to provide cost-effective care is outside the Medicare system, a system without constant paperwork and headaches and inadequate reimbursement.”

Ending Medicare participation is just one consequence of the system's funding problems. In a new Texas Medical Association survey, opting out was one of the least common options doctors have taken or are planning as a result of declining Medicare funding — behind increasing fees, reducing staff wages and benefits, reducing charity care and not accepting new Medicare patients.

The Heartland Institute - Welcome to the Fourth International Conference on Climate Change

2010-05-18T16:04:00.000-04:00

The Heartland Institute - Welcome to the Fourth International Conference on Climate Change

The theme for ICCC-4 will be “Reconsidering the Science and Economics.” New scientific discoveries are casting doubt on how much of the warming of the twentieth century was natural and how much was man-made, and governments around the world are beginning to confront the astronomical cost of reducing emissions. Economists, meanwhile, are calculating that the cost of slowing or stopping global warming exceeds the social benefits.

The purpose of ICCC-4 is the same as it was for the first three events: to build momentum and public awareness of the global warming “realism” movement, a network of scientists, economists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who believe sound science and economics, rather than exaggeration and hype, ought to determine what actions, if any, are taken to address the problem of climate change.

Danah Boyd - Facebook and “radical transparency” (a rant)

2010-05-17T21:06:00.000-04:00

Over and over again, I find that people’s mental model of who can see what doesn’t match up with reality. People think “everyone” includes everyone who searches for them on Facebook. They never imagine that “everyone” includes every third party sucking up data for goddess only knows what purpose. They think that if they lock down everything in the settings that they see, that they’re completely locked down. They don’t get that their friends lists, interests, likes, primary photo, affiliations, and other content is publicly accessible.

The Climategate Chronicle: How the Science of Global Warming Was Compromised - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

2010-05-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Climategate Chronicle: How the Science of Global Warming Was Compromised - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

To what extent is climate change actually occuring? Late last year, climate researchers were accused of exaggerating study results. SPIEGEL ONLINE has since analyzed the hacked "Climategate" e-mails and provided insights into one of the most unprecedented spats in recent scientific history.

Google Books Graphics, from GB to Blogger to Buzz

2010-05-16T17:53:00.000-04:00

Detroit to Demolish 10,000 Abandoned Properties - WSJ.com

2010-05-14T14:14:00.000-04:00

Detroit to Demolish 10,000 Abandoned Properties - WSJ.com

Mayor Dave Bing has pledged to knock down 10,000 structures in his first term as part of a nascent plan to "right-size" Detroit, or reconfigure the city to reflect its shrinking population.

When it's all over, said Karla Henderson, director of the Detroit Building Department, "There's going to be a lot of empty space."

Mr. Bing hasn't yet fully articulated his ultimate vision for what comes after demolition, but he has said entire areas will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. For now, his plan calls for the tracts to be converted to other uses, such as parks or farms.

Maybe they should give it to the UAW.

‘YouCut’ Spending by 0.017% | Cato @ Liberty

2010-05-14T14:07:00.000-04:00

‘YouCut’ Spending by 0.017% | Cato @ Liberty

But the GOP leadership make themselves look silly by offering such small cuts. The suggested cuts on the new website average just $638 million in annual savings, which is just 0.017 percent of total federal spending. Put another way, it is just $1 of cuts for every $5,800 of federal spending. The average YouCut savings idea is just 0.04 percent of this year’s federal deficit of $1.6 trillion. So we would need 2,500 cuts of this size to balance the budget.

I can't imagine that any of our elected representative could run a lemonade stand, except to right into the ground. They should be able to cut 17% (no decimal point or leading zeroes) without breaking a sweat. Businesses and state and local governments have to do this every day (although in the case of the government bodies they put it off longer than they should. Formula: When you run out of money, stop spending! DUH!

Imbeciles!

How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation - Cube Of M

2010-05-13T19:56:00.000-04:00

How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation - Cube Of M

So you have somehow begged, borrowed or stolen an email list of 1000 users who you believe are interested in your new service. Would it not be great if you could somehow convert that list into real people, with real photos, and perhaps even more concrete information like "My service has a higher than average gay consumer group" or "My dating service seems to be very popular among 9 year old girls"? Such information can help you correct course before you are too invested in a particular idea you have.

Well, a few weeks back, we were handed down this lovely present by our masters from above: Facebook.

Bill Clinton offers himself as lottery prize to pay off Hillary’s debts - Times Online

2010-05-12T20:18:00.000-04:00

Bill Clinton offers himself as lottery prize to pay off Hillary’s debts - Times Online

By 2007, seven years after leaving the White House, the Clintons had earned a combined $109 million (£73 million) through speaking engagements and bestselling memoirs. Even so, apparently they would prefer American voters to settle Mrs Clinton’s remaining $771,000 debt rather than paying it themselves.

The Next Phase in the Evolution of Office Suites | Zoho Blogs

2010-05-12T20:16:00.001-04:00

The Next Phase in the Evolution of Office Suites | Zoho Blogs

This week, Microsoft is launching the latest version of its Office suite. These 3 year release cycles seem alien to us given that our apps are typically updated at least once a month. In case you are considering upgrading to Office 2010, you might want to give online alternatives a try. Our friends at Google listed several reasons not to upgrade to Office 2010.

As Microsoft evolves its Office suite and moves online (finally), we see a new phase in the evolution of Office suites - Componentization. For the past five years, we have seen Office suites evolve from desktop application suites to online application suites, and Zoho has been at the forefront of this transformation. Now, we are leading the way again in taking the office suites to the next phase of its evolution.

Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug' - WSJ.com

2010-05-12T10:08:00.000-04:00

Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug' - WSJ.com

At this point it is common practice to pour wet cement down into the pipe. The wet cement, which is heavier than the drilling mud, sinks down through the drilling mud and then hardens into a plug thousands of feet down in the well.

The mud then is removed and displaced by seawater; the hardened cement plug holds back any underground gas.

In this case, a decision was made, shortly before the explosion, to perform the remaining tasks in reverse order, according to the expected Senate testimony of Mr. Probert, the Halliburton executive.

The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand

2010-05-12T01:06:00.000-04:00

Didn’t anyone read “Tom Sawyer”? We’re whitewashing Zuckerberg’s fence.

People are creating fan pages on Facebook and then paying Facebook to
send them traffic. Let me explain this one more time: You’re PAYING
Mark Zuckerberg money to send traffic to HIS SITE. Think about it.

Oh yeah, and while he’s taking your money and page views, he’s
convincing everyone that they don’t need their own customer’s
information: Just use Facebook Connect!

Oh yeah, and if you’re stupid enough to give up your customer database
to Facebook, he will pay you back by screwing over your user’s
privacy! Yes, that’s right: give up your customer database, pay for
traffic to build Facebook’s page views and, by the way, if you would
like to use a virtual currency, Zuck will take 30% of that as well!

The Question, the Answer.

2010-05-10T11:59:00.002-04:00

BP's Preparedness for Major Crisis Is Questioned - WSJ.com

BP's plan, as submitted to the Mineral Management Service, placed exceedingly low probabilities on oil reaching land in the event of a major spill. Even in the case of the worst spill, BP said, there was only a 3% chance that oil would come ashore after a month in any part of the Gulf other than Plaquemines, La., which juts into the Gulf south of New Orleans.

Mr. Gowers defended BP's clean-up operation. "We moved very rapidly to implement the approved response to the accident," he said. "The evidence for that is the huge containment effort on the surface and onshore."

So the age old question that must be asked of those up to their necks in failure: "Are you a liar or just stupid?"

And the age old response from those eager to avoid any response at all: "Well our intentions were good and we are trying really hard."

Our modern world is getting more practice at asking the question, as well as trying to probe its way around the non-answer.

We have asked or soon will be asking the question of those who have led Greece into a position well beyond bankruptcy. And then there are other countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, England, US states like California, Connecticut, Colorado, and the uncounted US cities who are cutting services while raising taxes while citizens scratch their heads.

Show an average citizen of any of the above entities a pie chart of where all the money goes and their jaws are sure to drop. But most of those published pie charts are incomplete, not including thing that are "off budget" (translation: secret from taxpayers) such as generous retirement programs for government workers. My favorite quote from sources above:

The party in power never seems to want to cut spending, but ultimately that is the only solution. The spending is unproductive to begin with, so eliminating it should be a net benefit.

Unproductive indeed. How many people in the US were inconvenienced by the "shutdown" of the federal government for three weeks? How many people even remember or were aware of it? If only that shutdown had involved unpaid leave for the many government workers told to stay home in what amounted to an extra vacation. For hose of us deemed "essential" productivity soared during the time we didn't have to deal with those deemed non-essential. Too bad the shutdown was more for show than anything else. Too bad that our future may hold shutdowns that are less orderly, taking productive workers along with the laggards.

So... Do we wait for all these things to happen to ask our leaders, the press, the pundits the question, remember the question: "Are you a liar or just stupid?"

And when the time comes will we accept the answer that we are sure to get: "Well our intentions were good and we are trying really hard."

Was The Market Mayhem A Mistake? Maybe Not. « Forbes.com's StreetTalk

2010-05-09T12:54:00.000-04:00

Was The Market Mayhem A Mistake? Maybe Not. « Forbes.com's StreetTalk

Someone put on a bearish position in the S&P 500 just 10 minutes before the market took a dive Thursday, suggesting the market swoon was less a mistake and more the result of some traders exiting a carry trade, hedging, or outright speculating. In any event, the much discussed "fat fingered" trader might not exist.

No Pets, thank you.

2010-05-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

I just spotted this batch of chicken wire marketed as an "Exercise Kennel".

This is why I think it wrong for most people to keep pets. They "love" their pets, until they become inconvenient.

Oil Spill: BP Suffers Setback on Containment - WSJ.com

2010-05-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

Oil Spill: BP Suffers Setback on Containment - WSJ.com

BP lowered a concrete-and-steel structure known as a containment dome almost a mile to the seafloor in an effort to stop the flow of oil from the drilling site. But gas hydrates, ice-like solids that form when methane gas combines with water under certain conditions, clogged the opening at the top of the dome, preventing oil from being funneled to the surface, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, on a media conference call. "I wouldn't say it has failed," Mr. Suttles said at a news conference. "What I would say is what we attempted to do last night wasn't successful."

Tragically funny.

The same people who are saying "It didn't fail" also assessed the risk of the drilling at near zero. Is english not their native language?

The trajectory of this is obvious. With ever bigger government employing a "too big to fail" philosophy, corporations get sloppier and sloppier with their risk assessment. "If this goes well, big payout, if not, let the public sector take over the clean-up... just like they did last time."

But what really happens is that governments use these "mistakes" as ammunition for more government "preventative" measures. More government supervision, more government picking the favorites, accelerating the "shit rises to the top" phenomenon. We trade glad-handing corporate types for glad-handing federal types and revolving doors as we see in the finacial sector. And then?

And then there is no accountability. Oh well, the government officials did their best. Suspend them for two weeks if they downloaded any porn. No firings, no loss of generous retirement benefits. The taxpayers will pay, now and into the distant future. True believers in the media will hush it all up for us.

Capitalism can work. But companies must pay for their mistakes, to the point of extinction for the big mistakes. In the US we use every disaster as an excuse to expand government, making blame placing harder rather than easier. In China the top guy hangs himself. Neither system does it right. But I would say that at least the Chinese model does something to discourage others from making similar mistakes. Hanging isn't necessary. Bankrupting the top management would be a much better approach. Branding them with felonies would make it harder for them to repeat.

Steven Pearlstein - Greece and the myth of the easy economic fix

2010-05-05T12:02:00.000-04:00

Steven Pearlstein - Greece and the myth of the easy economic fix

It is now with the same misguided determination that some European officials have tried to shut down any discussion of a restructuring of Greece's debt, or that of any other eurozone country, on the theory that a default for one would be a default for them all.

In fact, markets are fully capable of distinguishing between the finances of different countries that may use the same currency, just as they can distinguish the bonds of the state of California from those of Utah. And although any country that defaults will surely face the prospect of being shut out of credit markets for years, that punishment is no different than what was meted out in the past to countries such as Greece and Italy, when they were free to escape financial predicaments by repaying their debts in devalued currency.

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

2010-05-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

Google to Show TV Software in May - WSJ.com

2010-05-04T16:09:00.000-04:00

Google to Show TV Software in May - WSJ.com

The technology—designed to open set-top boxes, TVs and other devices to more content from the Internet—is attracting interest from partners that include Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International SA, which are expected to offer products that support the software, these people said. None have so far discussed the efforts publicly.

Google, of Mountain View, Calif., is currently planning on sharing some details about the technology with more than 3,000 developers expected to attend its Google I/O conference in San Francisco May 19 and 20. One person familiar with the matter cautioned the company could also decide to delay discussing it until the technology is more mature. Google uses the annual conference to showcase a range of technologies of interest to developers.

Google to Launch Digital Books by Early Summer - WSJ.com

2010-05-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

Google to Launch Digital Books by Early Summer - WSJ.com

The company is hoping to distinguish itself from incumbents like Amazon by allowing users to access books from a broad range of sites using multiple devices.

Google says its new service—called Google Editions—will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through its book-search service. It will also allow book retailers—even independent shops—to sell Google Editions on their own sites, taking the bulk of the revenue. Google has yet to release details about pricing and which publishers are expected to participate.

Clinton Says Iran Is 'Flouting the Rules' - WSJ.com

2010-05-03T17:39:00.000-04:00

Clinton Says Iran Is 'Flouting the Rules' - WSJ.com
The only surprise is how often some people can be surprised.

American Thinker: Progressive Death

2010-05-03T17:29:00.001-04:00

American Thinker: Progressive Death

Here is the essence of the problem with progressives and their movement, which is a gigantic problem for all of America: One of the only things we really know about progressives, and that they know about themselves and their ideology, is that they favor constant "change," "reform," an ever-shifting, ongoing "evolution," or, yes, progression. And therein lies an inherent, significant difficulty: Progressivism offers no clear, definable end. The goal post is always moving, forever pushed farther away. Ends are never ends; they always "progress" with culture and society -- all along relying on the ludicrous assumption that the changes are always (or largely) good.

Nihilism in a cheap suit. And it chafes at the collar. We don't know what we want, but it isn't this. We don't know when we will get there but it isn't now. Everything we have is bad and must be thrown out, forever. Progressives cannot and will not ever grow up. The Peter Pan syndrome of political philosophies.

Obama vs. Common Sense | Cato @ Liberty

2010-05-03T14:23:00.000-04:00

Obama vs. Common Sense | Cato @ Liberty

He explained, “what we should be asking is not whether we need ‘big government’ or a ’small government,’ but how we can create a smarter and better government.” Which is pretty much what every politician says when he wants big government and voters want small government.

For Sale - Fake and Stolen Facebook Accounts - NYTimes.com

2010-05-02T22:46:00.000-04:00

For Sale - Fake and Stolen Facebook Accounts - NYTimes.com

“We’re seeing this activity spread over to the U.S.,” he said.

Criminals steal log-in data for Facebook accounts, typically with “phishing” techniques that tricks users into disclosing their passwords or with malware that logs computer keystrokes. They then use the accounts to send spam, distribute malicious programs and run identity and confidence fraud.

Facebook accounts are attractive because of the higher level of trust on the site than exists in the broader Internet. People are required to use their real names and tend to connect primarily with people they know.

IPs Continue To Dwindle | Linux Journal

2010-05-02T19:37:00.000-04:00

IPs Continue To Dwindle | Linux Journal

It's widely known, at least within geekdom, that the number of available IP addresses is on a collision course with the number zero. The depletion of the IPv4 address space, and the necessity of migrating to the next-generation IPv6, has been discussed ad infinitum in geek circles since RFC 2460 was published in December 1998.

How bad will it be for BP? Think Toyota | Lou Ann Hammond on carlist.com

2010-04-30T01:06:00.000-04:00

How bad will it be for BP? Think Toyota | Lou Ann Hammond on carlist.com

No car company that is using brake override has the lawsuits looming that Toyota has in their future. The number of deaths related to these lawsuits are unparalleled. This incident is a marketing nightmare for the once golden global car company.

The 2010 Gulf oil spill will be a marketing nightmare for BP as well. Lives have already been lost. Gone is the flower power, beyond petroleum, buy from us because even though our core product is oil we are investing in alternative energies campaign.

The campaign for both companies now is damage control, and this campaign will cost both companies billions of dollars.

A complete disaster, that could have been averted, or minimized by utilizing one piece of equipment that was available.

Al Gore, Tipper Gore snap up Montecito-area villa - latimes.com

2010-04-29T14:42:00.000-04:00

Al Gore, Tipper Gore snap up Montecito-area villa - latimes.com

Al Gore to worshipful followers: "SUCKERS!"

Nasa: Evidence of life on Mars | The Sun |News

2010-04-29T00:09:00.000-04:00

Nasa: Evidence of life on Mars | The Sun |News

A special mission to the Red Planet has revealed the likely presence of a form of pond scum - the building blocks of life as we know it.

NASA has announced that due to budget changes the next Mars mission rather than carrying more sophisticated measurement equipment will instead will be a simple robotic arm equipped with a can of Lysol.

Video - Addressing America's Addiction to Deficits - WSJ.com

2010-04-28T13:46:00.000-04:00

Baby boy survives for nearly two days after abortion - Telegraph

2010-04-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

Baby boy survives for nearly two days after abortion - Telegraph:

"Most abortions at 22 weeks simply involve the induction of the birth which normally results in the death of a young foetus.

The case is causing uproar in Italy because it is the second involving a foetus of that age surviving the procedure in just three years.

The other involved a baby in Florence who weighed just 17oz when he was aborted at 22 weeks because of a suspected genetic disorder but lived for three days."

Reports Show BP Opposed New Safety Rules - WSJ.com

2010-04-27T19:24:00.000-04:00

Reports Show BP Opposed New Safety Rules - WSJ.com

As BP touted the scale of the cleanup, documents showed that it was one of several companies that opposed efforts to tighten up safety procedures offshore. Last year, the MMS studied more than 1,400 offshore incidents that led to 41 deaths and hundreds of injuries between 2001 and 2007. Many of them, the MMS found, were linked to factors such as communications failures, a lack of written procedures and the failure of supervisors to enforce existing rules, and proposed mandatory requirements to reduce the number of incidents. That would have replaced a system under which many safety procedures were voluntary.

iPhone Leak Investigation Pauses As DA Ponders Gizmodo Shield Law Defense

2010-04-27T13:35:00.000-04:00

iPhone Leak Investigation Pauses As DA Ponders Gizmodo Shield Law Defense

When I asked if it was typical for the DA to evaluate the relevance of these shield laws after removing evidence, Wagstaffe did concede that it was unusual. Which makes the situation extremely odd— it should have been readily apparent that Gawker would defend its actions using this shield law defense, why put the brakes on after the fact?

DUH!

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint

2010-04-27T13:29:00.001-04:00

Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat.

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”

No argument here.

The leftist propaganda of American media is not new | The Real Revo

2010-04-25T21:08:00.000-04:00

The leftist propaganda of American media is not new | The Real Revo

The evidence, however, is blatant and undeniable. Malcolm Muggeridge of the Manchester Guardian contemporary of Duranty and described him as “the greatest liar of any journalist I have met in fifty years of journalism.” He also wrote this of Duranty and his fellow travelers in Moscow.
Wise old [Bernard]Shaw, high-minded old [Henri]Barbusse, the venerable [Sidney and Beatrice] Webbs, [Andre] Gide the pure in heart and [Pablo] Picasso the impure, down to poor little teachers, crazed clergymen and millionaires, driveling dons and very special correspondents like Duranty, all resolved, come what might, to believe anything, however preposterous, to overlook nothing, however villainous, to approve anything, however obscurantist and brutally authoritarian, in order to be able to preserve intact the confident expectation that one of the most thorough-going, ruthless and bloody tyrannies ever to exist on earth could be relied on to champion human freedom, the brotherhood of man, and all the other good liberal causes to which they had dedicated their lives.

America allowed itself to be deceived by Western propagandists of terror and murder. We lived in denial while horror was imposed on millions. The tradition continues. The willingness of today’s mainstream media to grovel at the feet of totalitarianism has a long and extensive pedigree.

The Washington Post Makes A Major Factual Error « The Baseline Scenario

2010-04-25T01:10:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post Makes A Major Factual Error « The Baseline Scenario

Given that the Washington Post still has a large staff of excellent journalists working around the world, they could try asking G20 deputies about this in detail – or even just consult with top regulators in the UK who can lay this all out for them. And while they are at it, it would be worth writing a story on why there is no G20-level process to establish a cross-border resolution mechanism – and no likelihood of such a mechanism for the next 20 years.

Absolutely Pathetic: AP Report Says GM, Chrysler Lost 400,000 Jobs in 2008 | NewsBusters.org

2010-04-25T01:04:00.000-04:00

Absolutely Pathetic: AP Report Says GM, Chrysler Lost 400,000 Jobs in 2008 | NewsBusters.org

For the record, total U.S. employment at General Motors at the end of 2007 was about 110,000, according to this early February 2008 item. This November 2007 link indicates that Chrysler at that point had 71,000 employees worldwide (59,000 expected to remain plus 12,000 jobs expected to be eliminated). The two entities combined obviously did not have 400,000 U.S. jobs to shed at the beginning of 2008. Whether they are even legitimately "rebounding" is also more than a little questionable, but will be left alone for now.

Superville's stunner makes it clear that, in journalism and so many other endeavors, the problem isn't only that basic math skills have fallen so steeply (which they have). It's that people who one would expect to be able to detect self-evidently out of line numbers like the one above, i.e., journalists like the AP's Superville reviewing her own work, as well as the layers of alleged editors at the self-described "Essential Global News Network," clearly can't or won't do it.

Tech.view: Hydrogen tries again | The Economist

2010-04-25T01:01:00.000-04:00

Tech.view: Hydrogen tries again | The Economist

From the beginning, the cloud hanging over the whole hydrogen enterprise has not been the power source as such, but the intractable difficulty of distributing and storing the stuff. It is not hard to see why. Hydrogen atoms are the smallest and lightest in the universe. The next heaviest element in the periodic table, the inert gas helium, is used for detecting cracks in pressure vessels and the like. Even though helium atoms are four times chunkier than hydrogen atoms, they are still small enough to find all the weak spots as they worm their way through the crystalline structure of solid steel several centimetres thick. If hydrogen were used as a crack detector (it is not because of the fire hazard), it would escape four times faster.

Facebook Is Taking Over The Internet: Why Isn't Everybody Freaking Out?

2010-04-24T23:40:00.000-04:00

Facebook Is Taking Over The Internet: Why Isn't Everybody Freaking Out?
From the comments a beauty:

Something born so crooked as F*c*book, with 'sociopath' written all over the corporate DNA in neon, will only implode sooner or later.

I just wonder what apparently ethical and intelligent people like Paul Bucheit (who seems to have penned the "don't be evil" at Google, and come in with an acquisition) are doing there. Must be waiting for money timed to sale contract clauses. Most expensive money he ever got.

Wallison: Fannie and Freddie Amnesia - WSJ.com

2010-04-24T23:05:00.000-04:00

Wallison: Fannie and Freddie Amnesia - WSJ.com

One chapter in this story took place in July 2005, when the Senate Banking Committee, then controlled by the Republicans, adopted tough regulatory legislation for the GSEs on a party-line vote—all Republicans in favor, all Democrats opposed. The bill would have established a new regulator for Fannie and Freddie and given it authority to ensure that they maintained adequate capital, properly managed their interest rate risk, had adequate liquidity and reserves, and controlled their asset and investment portfolio growth.

These authorities were necessary to control the GSEs' risk-taking, but opposition by Fannie and Freddie—then the most politically powerful firms in the country—had consistently prevented reform.

The date of the Senate Banking Committee's action is important. It was in 2005 that the GSEs—which had been acquiring increasing numbers of subprime and Alt-A loans for many years in order to meet their HUD-imposed affordable housing requirements—accelerated the purchases that led to their 2008 insolvency. If legislation along the lines of the Senate committee's bill had been enacted in that year, many if not all the losses that Fannie and Freddie have suffered, and will suffer in the future, might have been avoided.

Why was there no action in the full Senate? As most Americans know today, it takes 60 votes to cut off debate in the Senate, and the Republicans had only 55. To close debate and proceed to the enactment of the committee-passed bill, the Republicans needed five Democrats to vote with them. But in a 45 member Democratic caucus that included Barack Obama and the current Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), these votes could not be found.

» The New GOP Agenda: GOV2.0 - Big Government

2010-04-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

» The New GOP Agenda: GOV2.0 - Big Government

The watchword for Republicans needs to be “productivity.” As in, “Why the hell hasn’t our government gotten more productive?” Here’s why:

For more than two decades, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had collected, analyzed, and published data on labor productivity in the Federal Government. Due to budgetary constraints, the Federal Productivity Measurement Program has been terminated. This article presents some of the statistics produced by the program during the 27 years of its operation. It provides a brief history and explains conceptual underpinnings of the program. Results from the program show a small, but steady increase in output per employee year in the Federal Government from 1967 to 1994, with the rate slowing somewhat after 1982.

WTF? Right? While the US private sector saw its largest productivity gains since the steam engine, the US public sector stuck one thumb in its ass, another in its mouth and took a frigging nap. And got huge pay raises.

Say it with me, boys and girls, “Public Employee Unions are EVIL.”

Brass Tacks: Companies that deploy IT and web services can fire workers while increasing output and reducing prices. Wal-Mart’s got me checking myself out. I spend $30 a year for unlimited phone calls. Look at any government web site. It’s like 1997.

» IndyMac Attack: Did Schumer, Paulson, Soros, and the CRL Kill the Bank and Profit From Its Collapse? - Big Government

2010-04-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

» IndyMac Attack: Did Schumer, Paulson, Soros, and the CRL Kill the Bank and Profit From Its Collapse? - Big Government

At the end of 2007, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson invested $15 million in the leftist non-profit, Center for Responsible Lending, their largest single donation ever. Around the same time, Paulson and his employees contributed over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, headed, at the time, by Sen. Chuck Schumer. Roughly six months later, CRL and Sen. Schumer both launched a highly public attack on the California-based mortgage lender, Indymac. The lender failed, wiping out the investment of thousands of people. Roughly six months after that, John Paulson, in partnership with George Soros, bought up the remnants of Indymac for pennies on the dollar.

It is a drama that no longer surprises us, unfortunately. Wealthy investors use their access to elected officials and their checkbook to advocacy groups for private profit. But this story has a twist; a top executive of CRL when this deal went down, Eric Stein, is now working at the Treasury Department, heading up the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Mr. Stein will be the chief federal official designing regulations to protect consumers. Right.

» Scientists: EPA ‘Distorting’ Biofuels Reality - Big Government

2010-04-24T22:33:00.000-04:00

» Scientists: EPA ‘Distorting’ Biofuels Reality - Big Government

According to Jeremy Martin, a senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Vehicles Program, EPA’s decision to focus on anticipated biofuel emissions as of 2022 “distorts the picture of today’s biofuels.” By 2022, the theory goes, corn crop yields will have increased and biorefining technology will be more efficient and green than it is today. But for now, according to Joe Fargione, a scientist with the Nature Conservancy, “in the near term, natural-gas-powered, dry-milled corn ethanol production results in an increase of greenhouse gas emissions of 12 to 33 percent compared to gasoline.” Worse yet, EPA’s analysis recognizes this. However, ethanol has been redesignated, despite such indicators that it does not meet the renewable fuels criteria.

Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking - Times Online

2010-04-24T22:05:00.000-04:00

Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking - Times Online

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman

2010-04-23T21:37:00.000-04:00

A lifetime of living alone in solitary places shows in Dugout Dick's face in this photo shot in 2002. Born Richard Zimmerman, he was the last of Idaho's legendary loners. Zimmerman died Wednesday.

What?

The man was 94 years old! What is he supposed to look like? Jon Stewart?

Logins for sale: be wary of Facebook friends in need

2010-04-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

Facebook users may not consider their accounts to be worth anything on the black market, but a group of 1.5 million logins are currently being hawked by scammers. According to a new report from VeriSign's iDefense, a scammer going by the name of "Kirllos" claims to have gathered the login information for one out of every 300 Facebook users and is trying to sell the accounts to others. The incident is just a reminder that social networking users can't just ignore strangers anymore—they should be able to recognize a phishing attempt from a "friend" when they see it.

While economy crumbled, top financial watchdogs at SEC surfed for porn on Internet: memo

2010-04-23T11:36:00.000-04:00

- A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When his government computer ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs. He later agreed to resign.

- An accountant was blocked more than 16,000 times in a single month from visiting "sex" or "pornography" sites, but still managed to amass a collection of "very graphic" material by using Google to bypass the SEC's internal filter. He wound up with a 2-week suspension.

- Seventeen of the randy employees were "at a senior level" earning salaries of up to $222,418.

Two weeks!

YouTube - Tea Party Racism??

2010-04-22T00:09:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Tea Party Racism??

How Google Is Going To Put The Squeeze On Salesforce.com

2010-04-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

Excellent work. DO check out this article which has quite a bit of depth on the subject. My comments:

Google uses "partners" I believe (I don't know if they call them that though) who get apps services at a discount and then can sell them at whatever price they choose, bundling in more hand-holding, onsite support, etc., things that Google isn't interested in.

Looks to me like Salesforce could transform itself into a VAR (Value added Reseller) and offer extended support for both Google (and Microsoft while they are at it) in addition to their own "premium" product. They would instantly be the number one company in this business I believe.

Bottom line is... the bottom line. And if both Microsoft and Salesforce are providing their service inefficiently then the old saw about "making it up in volume" applies.

MS Office is too expensive and has been for years. Companies traded expensive mainframe hardware for an even more expensive army of support staff and hundreds or thousands of constantly breaking PCs. Now Microsoft will be competing with themselves and counting on the slow moving public sector to pay for a zillion desktop license every year until the press starts mocking them for it. That is the point when we see what a new downsized Microsoft (or a bunch of spinoffs) will really look like. They may yet discover that Thomas Penfield Jackson was the best friend they ever had.

Gore takes cash for water campaign from chemical firm - Americas, World - The Independent

2010-04-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

Al Gore, the self-styled squeakiest-clean and deepest-green politician in American history, has some explaining to do this weekend. His environmental organisation has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company involved in the aftermath of one of the world's worst pollution disasters.

GISS & METAR – dial “M” for missing minus signs: it’s worse than we thought « Watts Up With That?

2010-04-18T14:09:00.000-04:00

With some work I started back in late December and through January, and with GISS putting stamp of approval on “missing minus signs” I can now demonstrate that missing minus signs aren’t just an odd event, they happen with regularity, and the effect is quite pronounced when it does happen. This goes to the very heart of data gathering integrity and is rooted in simple human error. The fault lies not with GISS (though now they need a new quality control feature) but mostly with NOAA/NCDC who manages the GHCN and who also needs better quality control. The error originates at the airport, likely with a guy sitting in the control tower. Readers who are pilots will understand this when they see what I’m talking about.

W.Va. mine disaster calls attention to revolving door between industry, government

2010-04-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

More than 200 former congressional staff members, federal regulators and lawmakers are employed by the mining industry as lobbyists, consultants or senior executives, including dozens who work for coal companies with the worst safety records in the nation, a Washington Post analysis shows.

» Waxman Cancels Healthcare Show Trial - Big Government

2010-04-16T20:20:00.000-04:00

» Waxman Cancels Healthcare Show Trial - Big Government
Apparently someone tapped Waxman on the shoulder and pointed out to him that proponents of the legislation *don't* want the truth to get out about its effects.

The Joy of Tax Serfdom | Cato @ Liberty

2010-04-16T14:51:00.002-04:00

Are Libertarians Anti-Government? | Cato @ Liberty

2010-04-16T14:28:00.000-04:00

Libertarians want people to be able to live peacefully together in civil society. Cooperation is better than coercion. Peaceful coexistence and voluntary cooperation require an institution to protect us from outside threats, deter or punish criminals, and settle the disputes that will inevitably arise among neighbors—a government, in short. Thus, to criticize a wide range of the activities undertaken by federal and state governments—from Social Security to drug prohibition to out-of-control taxation—is not to be “anti-government.” It is simply to insist that what we want is a limited government that attends to its necessary and proper functions.

But if libertarians are not “anti-government,” then how do we describe the kind of government that libertarians support? One formulation found in the media is that “libertarians support weak government.” That has a certain appeal. But consider a prominent case of “weak government.” Numerous reports have told us recently about the weakness of the Russian government. Not only does it have trouble raising taxes and paying its still numerous employees, it has trouble deterring or punishing criminals. It is in fact too weak to carry out its legitimate functions. The Russian government is a failure on two counts: it is massive, clumsy, overextended, and virtually unconstrained in scope, yet too weak to perform its essential job. (Residents of many American cities may find that description a bit too close for comfort.)

Lawrence Solomon: The new climate game - FP Comment

2010-04-16T14:15:00.000-04:00

Lawrence Solomon: The new climate game - FP Comment

Climate scientists play a good game of whack-a-mole.

Right from the early days of the global warming controversy, they whacked any scientist who dissented from the view that CO2 was warming the planet in a dangerous way. Up popped other skeptical scientists, and WHACK!! Down they went.

Up popped skeptical journalists and WHACK! Down they went, too. Then more whacks for new scientists who surfaced, or pesky scientists who resurfaced.

Today, decades later, the climate science establishment is still whacking away, faster and more frenetically than ever, as more and more skeptical scientists, journalists and politicians surface. And now there’s a new species of skeptic in need of whacking down — the many inquiries that have sprung up in the wake of Climategate, the unauthorized release of some 3,000 documents from the computers of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University showing that data had been manipulated and destroyed.

...

In some cases, whacking was not required — at least not by the climate change establishment. The inquiries set up by East Anglia University have as their members people of satisfactory credentials. Consider Lord Oxburgh, who chairs one of the two inquiries. He is also the head of Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment, a lobby group for global warming legislation, and an advisor to Climate Change Capital, which aims to cash in on the $45-trillion market in the coming low-carbon economy. Others on the inquiries have strikingly similar credentials, so much so that the London Telegraph reported that “almost all their members were committed, even fanatical advocates of global warming.”

Who Has The Dumbest Followers On Twitter?

2010-04-15T13:13:00.001-04:00

Who Has The Dumbest Followers On Twitter?

China's Youth Meet Microsoft - The National Labor Committee

2010-04-15T12:53:00.000-04:00

China's Youth Meet Microsoft - The National Labor Committee

Over the last three years, the following photographs were smuggled out of the KYE Systems factory in the south of China. These images of exhausted teenagers making Microsoft "Life Cam VX-7000; "Basic Optical Mouse" and "Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000" are not necessarily ones the American people would associate with Microsoft. Unfortunately these are Microsoft products, and Microsoft has been outsourcing production to the KYE factory since at least 2003.

Buzz Aldrin: President Obama's JFK Moment

2010-04-14T12:44:00.000-04:00

Buzz Aldrin: President Obama's JFK Moment
The other side of the argument:

Thank you, Mr. President.

That's what we should say to President Barack Obama in light of his Fiscal Year 2011 space budget for NASA. The President courageously decided to redirect our nation's space policy away from the foolish and underfunded Moon race that has consumed NASA for more than six years, aiming instead at boosting the agency's budget by more than $1 billion more per year over the next five years, topping off at $100 billion for NASA between now and 2015. And he directed NASA to spend a billion per year on buying rides for American astronauts aboard new, commercially developed space vehicles-that's American space vehicles. Other NASA funds will go into developing and testing new revolutionary technologies that we can use in living and working on Mars and its moons.

TIME 100 Competition - The 2010 TIME 100 Poll - TIME

2010-04-14T00:14:00.000-04:00

TIME 100 Competition - The 2010 TIME 100 Poll - TIME
As if we needed a demonstration of what airheads the American public has become.

'The Factor' Confronts Al Gore

2010-04-13T23:34:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Preview: 'The Factor' Confronts Al Gore

And the Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy goes to...

Armstrong: Obama hurting space - PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK

2010-04-13T23:25:00.001-04:00

Armstrong: Obama hurting space - PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK

"America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.

"It appears that we will have wasted our current ten plus billion dollar investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded."

Translation: This Whitehouse is out of its tiny little mind.

Former WaMu CEO Defends Bank's Actions - WSJ.com

2010-04-13T22:45:00.000-04:00

Former WaMu CEO Defends Bank's Actions - WSJ.com

"For those that were part of the inner circle and were 'too clubby to fail,' the benefits were obvious," Mr. Killinger said. "For those outside the club, the penalty was severe." A spokesman at the Office of Thrift Supervision, the federal agency that seized Washington Mutual, declined to comment on Mr. Killinger's testimony.

Mr. Killinger's comments were a contrast to the low profile he has kept since the collapse. He shuttles between homes in Palm Desert, Calif., and a gated community in Seattle, and has avoided public events and new business ventures, according to people familiar with the situation.

IBM Abandons U.S. Workers

2010-04-13T17:36:00.000-04:00

Good analysis:

Who Is Hurt By US Corporate Tax Policy?

Unlike IBM and GE, small businesses do not have the luxury of hiring an army of lawyers to figure out how to avoid taxes.

The solution is lower but equal taxes across the board, not higher taxes as President Obama is clamoring for. If one insists on a skew, it would be far better from a jobs standpoint to defer taxes in the US than overseas.

My own personal preference would be to slash the corporate tax rate to 10% or lower, preferably zero.

This would level the playing field between small and large corporations. It would also eliminate the need for a whole army of lawyers and lobbyists whose only function is to game the system.

Finally, elimination of corporate taxes would spur job creation at small businesses, right here in the US, where we desperately need Jobs. To top it off, money would flow to the US, in dollars, instead of overseas in some other currency.

President Obama's solution is ass backwards.

The Post wins four Pulitzers; Bristol, Va., paper wins for public service

2010-04-13T11:23:00.000-04:00

The Post wins four Pulitzers; Bristol, Va., paper wins for public service
Right in the middle of a self congratulatory message on the Pulitzers is this short non-sequiter:

The National Enquirer, which drew attention by entering its exposé of John Edwards fathering a child with a former presidential campaign aide, was not a finalist. The prizes are administered by Columbia University.

If the National Enquirer doesn't deserve a pulitzer, then why do they deserve a mention? Is there a bit of a guilt-trip going on here?

Given that Edward's affair seemed to be common knowledge among some of the media that travelled with him it is likely that the job of the Enquirer wasn't all that difficult. So is the MSM a bit embarrassed at not outing a fatally flawed candidate on their own, in fact, most likely covering up for him as they would not do if he had an "R" after his name?

Inquiring minds want to know.

The Flash Blog » Apple Slaps Developers In The Face

2010-04-12T16:00:00.000-04:00

The Flash Blog » Apple Slaps Developers In The Face

[Sentence regarding Apple's intentions redacted at request from Adobe]. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple’s devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D.

I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.

Bit of irony there.

Like Microsoft did to IBM, Apple is quite willing to screw over those companies most interested in partnering with them.

Ultimately this resulted in an attitude regarding Microsoft that they couldn't be trusted, ever, under any conditions. To this day, no company "gladly" does business with Microsoft, but fearfully, afraid they will co-opt your ideas, or block them, on a whim whether self serving or just vindictive.

Is Jobs really interested in following this lead? Who is Darth Vader here, or Luke, or the Emperor?

Just think how nicely Open Source could put an end to these silly plot lines.

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Masters Tournament - Cringely on technology

2010-04-11T12:25:00.000-04:00

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Masters Tournament - Cringely on technology

“What I can’t figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? ” wondered Bill. “He knows he can’t win.”

It is easy to see what Gates meant if you look at a comparison of the two companies in June, 1998. Microsoft stock was around $29 with a market capitalization of $250 billion. Apple’s stock was at $7.25, triple what it had been a year before when Microsoft had stepped-in to bolster Apple with a $150 million investment, but still worth a market cap of only $6 billion. In terms of products, market share, cash flow, and general strategy Microsoft had it all over Apple in 1998 and the idea that Jobs would ever catch up to Gates was, at the time, ludicrous.

Peggy Noonan: After the Crash, a Crashing Bore - WSJ.com

2010-04-10T21:56:00.001-04:00

Peggy Noonan: After the Crash, a Crashing Bore - WSJ.com

That's why this week's Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings were so exciting, such a public service. The testimony of Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, a too-big-to-fail bank that received $45 billion in bailouts and $300 billion in taxpayer guarantees, was riveting. You've seen it on the news, but if you were watching it live on C-Span, the stark power of his brutal candor was breathtaking. This, as you know, is what he said:

"Let's be real. This is what happened the past 10 years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best."

Note: That isn't actually a quote as she goes on to say. I've watched almost all of the hearings at this point, and I didn't find them as devoid of content as did Peggy Noonan. But she certainly nails it with respect to the dance that these postmortems usually resemble. In fact, the gist of her fake quote above was uttered at least a few times, usually followed by someone trying to change the subject and obscure the dialog with terms of art.

One statistic that I've only partially verified is that home ownership (which was steadily increasing already) went from something like 64% at the enactment of the CRA to a whopping 69% at about the time of the bubble's busting.

That is, after having life breathed into the system by having Andrew Cuomo sue the pants off banks and accusing them of racism (in the case I'm aware of, a bank in a black neighborhood, staffed by black loan officers). Wikipedia adds a few more points about the politisization of the system here:

CRA regulations give community groups the right to comment on or protest about banks' non-compliance with CRA.[7] Such comments could help or hinder banks' planned expansions. Groups at first only slowly took advantage of these rights.[45] Regulatory changes during President Bill Clinton's administration allowed these community groups better access to CRA information and enabled them to increase their activities.[4][40][92]

In an article for the New York Post, economist Stan Liebowitz wrote that community activists intervention at yearly bank reviews resulted in their obtaining large amounts of money from banks, since poor reviews could lead to frustrated merger plans and even legal challenges by the Justice Department.[93] Michelle Minton noted that Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN at about the same time they were to apply for permission to merge and needed to comply with CRA regulations.[82]

According to the New York Times, some of these housing advocacy groups provided early warnings about the potential impact of lowered credit standards and the resulting unsupportable increase in real estate values they were causing in low to moderate income communities. Ballooning mortgages on rental properties threatened to require large rent increases from low and moderate income tenants that could ill afford them.[94]

Housing advocacy groups were also leaders in the fight against subprime lending in low- and moderate-income communities, "In fact, community advocates had been telling the Federal Reserve about the dangers of subprime lending since the 1990s", according to Inner City Press. "For example, Bronx-based Fair Finance Watch commented to the Federal Reserve about the practices of now-defunct non-bank subprime lender New Century, when U.S. Bancorp bought warrants for 24% of New Century's stock. The Fed, rather than take any action on New Century, merely waited until U.S. Bancorp sold off some of the warrants, and then said the issue was moot." However, subprime loans were so profitable, that they were aggressively marketed in low-and moderate-income communities, even over the objections and warnings of housing advocacy groups like ACORN.[95]

Does it sound like a circle jerk to you too?

The Dodd Bill: Bailouts Forever

2010-04-09T15:35:00.000-04:00

The Dodd Bill: Bailouts Forever

Senator Dodd’s proposed financial regulation would provide the FDIC with the power to liquidate large financial institutions, something they have little experience in. Giving the FDIC this power reinforces the idea that the government is willing to intervene on behalf of large and politically connected financial institutions, thereby institutionalizing "too big to fail."

New species 'lives without oxygen' - Telegraph

2010-04-09T14:14:00.000-04:00

New species 'lives without oxygen' - Telegraph

Three species of creature, which are only a millimetre long and resemble jellyfish encased in shells, were found 2.2 miles (3.5km) underwater on the ocean floor, 124 miles (200km) off the coast of Crete, in an area with almost no oxygen.

The animals, named Loriciferans due to their protective layer, or lorica, were discovered by a team led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy.

Robert M. McDowell - Hands off the Internet

2010-04-09T11:38:00.000-04:00

Robert M. McDowell - Hands off the Internet

Last fall, over dissenting votes from Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker and me, the FCC proposed rules to regulate high-speed Internet. Before embarking on any regulatory journey, it is critical for the government to ask and answer: What exactly is broken that only the government can fix?

Curiously, the commission proposed rules even though studies by the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission found no evidence of market failure. And when the Justice and Commerce departments filed comments with the FCC in January, neither provided evidence of concentrations and abuses of market power in the broadband arena. To the contrary, the Justice Department sounded optimistic about the competitiveness of the broadband market. It even warned against imposing new regulations "to avoid stifling the infrastructure investments needed to expand broadband access."

Nonetheless, the FCC may still consider imposing early-20th-century vintage "common carrier" regulations on 21st-century broadband technologies. One result of the new rules could be to make it harder for the operators of broadband "pipes" to build "smart" networks, which offer connectivity and other services or products.

The display of ignorance in the comments section after this article is overwhelming. Our biggest problem is that we already have a system (of government) that is overly complex. Individual citizens don't have the time (or willpower) to figure it all out so they rely on media talking points (I include myself in this on some topics at least).

Fundamentally though, do any of us want a more complex tax code? Hundreds of pounds of new federal laws and regulations every year? New legislation so voluminous that even member of congress can't find the time to read them? More forms to fill out and fees to pay just to start a small business? Laws so obscure that we are constantly violating them without knowing it?

Big Banks Move to Mask Risk Levels - WSJ.com

2010-04-09T00:51:00.000-04:00

Big Banks Move to Mask Risk Levels - WSJ.com

Major banks have masked their risk levels in the past five quarters by temporarily lowering their debt just before reporting it to the public, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A group of 18 banks—which includes Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.—understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42% at the end of each of the past five quarterly periods, the data show. The banks, which publicly release debt data each quarter, then boosted the debt levels in the middle of successive quarters.

Will they never learn?

No need to answer that.

By the way, the 3-hour testimony by Rubin and the other Citibank official (who's name I forget) is really instructive in an "I know nothink, I was just following orders" sense of the word.

Bernanke Says U.S. Should Tackle Debt - WSJ.com

2010-04-08T17:45:00.000-04:00

Bernanke Says U.S. Should Tackle Debt - WSJ.com

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that huge U.S. budget deficits threaten the nation's long-term economic health and should be addressed soon.

No Sh*t Sherlock!

Maybe you should get some tips from Greenspan about what a waste of time it is telling that to Congress.

Ex-Citigroup leaders contrite - Yahoo! News UK

2010-04-08T17:17:00.002-04:00

Ex-Citigroup leaders contrite - Yahoo! News UK

His hands visibly shaking as he answered questions, Rubin told congressional investigators he was not a decision-maker at the bank during the worst of its troubles. The former U.S. treasury secretary in the Clinton administration said Citi's risk-assessment ability was strong.

Great work if you can get it (and apparently Rubin is expert at getting it) making big bucks but carrying no responsibility. I think he used that same line for the dot-com bust (and follow-on) that was under way at the end of Clinton's second term.

Eight former and current Citi executives have testified. All have basically said that no one, including them, could have foreseen the problems that nearly destroyed the bank.

That's odd. I predicted it. Maybe they should have hired me. But I know several other people who predicted it as well (all bought low, sold high), so I would have had competition for the job. Maybe the problem is that some of these guys didn't.

C-Span Video.

Air marshal subdues man on DC-Denver flight

2010-04-07T23:05:00.000-04:00

Air marshal subdues man on DC-Denver flight

Unlike the Christmas Day bomb attempt on an Detroit-bound airliner, officials say it is not immediately clear what the man was trying to do—something harmful like start a fire or explosion, or something as innocent as smoke a cigarette.

Officials insisted Wednesday night it was still too early to tell whether the incident was an attempted act of terrorism or a giant misunderstanding.

Vivek Kundra - WhoRunsGov.com, a Wash Post Co

2010-04-07T20:16:00.000-04:00

Vivek Kundra - WhoRunsGov.com, a Wash Post Co

In summer 2008, Kundra found an outside company to hire subcontractors for the District. By doing this, he hoped it would free District employees from having to handle more paperwork, get expert subcontractors on the job faster and limit interaction between subcontractors and city managers, which had created relationships described by city employees and consultants to The Washington Post as “rampant cronyism.” The new system would be more transparent and efficient in doling out $75 million-a-year in technology contracts, according to Kundra. "The best disinfectant is more sunshine," Kundra told the D.C. City Council.

Kundra left his D.C. post in February 2009 to join the Obama administration. Less than a month later, the FBI raided Kundra’s former offices. Federal authorities said former technology security director Yusuf Acar, and the owner of a subcontracting company, Sushil Bansal, attempted to steal money through the creation of “ghost employees” and product invoices that were never delivered. The two men, with the help of a former technology employee working in the finance office, allegedly defrauded the District of $500,000, according to the affidavit.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Kundra was not a suspect or under investigation.

No word on this since this post in January (and no news in it from that time in any event). FBI still investigating? Investigation dropped? Whole thing plastered over? Who knows?

And what is the status of DC governments move to cloud computing? LA and Orlando are cited as success stories. But bloated DC government more closely resembled the entrenched feds. Would be nice to know that all is still going well there and how those savings are coming.

ICD's Tegra 2-powered Gemini is the most feature-complete tablet we've seen yet -- Engadget

2010-04-07T13:26:00.000-04:00

ICD's Tegra 2-powered Gemini is the most feature-complete tablet we've seen yet -- Engadget

Built around the 1GHz Tegra 2 SOC, the 11.2-inch ICD Gemini should provide comparable endurance to Apple's A4-sporting iPad, while besting it in the grunt stakes with its glorious ability to chew through 1080p video when required. If that wasn't enough, the rest of this thing's spec sheet reads like a wishlist. Headlined by a 3G connection that allows cellular voice calls (crazy, we know!), it also includes a user-replaceable 40Wh battery, an SD card reader, FM radio, GPS, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB connectivity to PCs and USB peripherals, stereo speakers, and dual webcams -- a 2 megapixel front-facing unit and a 5 megapixel autofocusing snapper on the back.

In addition to my aversion to first versions, and the not all that attractive price there are many "issues" with the new iPad that hopefully will be addressed by competition.