dannyman.toldme.com

Save Tesla: Get Art!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/05/07/save-tesla-get-art/

Public Domain from teslasience.org

Are you a fan of Nikola Tesla? His last remaining laboratory, Wardenclyffe, on Long Island, where he had ambitions of developing a worldwide network of free electrical power, is threatened with sale and demolition. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, a would-be museum, wishes to purchase, preserve, and museum-ify the land. They’ll accept donations via personal check. This random lady on Livejournal will accept donations on their behalfonline casino via PayPal, write a check, and for donations in excess of $20, she will draw you a picture of Nikola Tesla, “to your PG-rated specifications” and mail it to you.

(Thanks, beatonna!)

Update: Andrew suggested this crucial documentary on Nikola Tesla.

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Technology Companies: 2008 Profit-per-Employee

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/05/04/2008-tech-ppe/

I enjoyed Pingdom’s recent posts about the size of technology companies, as well as the money they are making, and I asked myself how that equates to the average profit made per employee.

So, I borrowed Pingdom’s numbers, which Pingdom borrowed from Google Finance, and then I quickly larned myself on the Perl GD::Graph module and I generated my own graph:

Or, if you prefer:

What is Baidu? Think of it as Chinese Google and you’ll know as much as I do. I’d reckon that profit-per-employee would be very roughly predictive of job security. My feeling about Google is that they are perpetually understaffed due to their traumatic recruiting process.

If you want to play, feel free to grab my ugly hack of a Perl script, the input data file, or unsorted output.

Update: Pingdom took my suggestion to heart and published their own summary.

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How to Find the Hottest Slave Leias?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/05/02/hottest-slave-leia/

In browsing the Internet I was tempted to click a link labeled The 101 Hottest Princess Leia Slave Photos. Alas, I was horrified at the horrible scaling and otherwise atrocious user interface.

Then I asked myself if I could solve this problem. Well, not me personally, but the crowdsourcing tool called Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=slave+leia

Flickr can even find a CC-licensed sense of humor:

“You can’t un-see this.” (CC: Official Star Wars Blog)

See also: The force is strong with this one « Flickr Blog

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Apple Fail

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/04/28/apple-fail/

In order to make a Mac nearly half as useful as a typical Unix distribution, you have to sign up with Apple to download special “developer” stuff like a compiler. That means that years after you have given up on using a Mac, you’ll get funny spam like this one:

So, they are soliciting me for a design contest, and the “fine print” to unsubscribe is not merely the usual small, gray text, but small, gray text on a gray background. Layers of delicious failure.

The last spam I received from Apple was for a recruiting event, with no unsubscribe option whatever.

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Iowa Likely to Keep Gay Marriage

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/04/08/iowa/

Eileen linked me to this YouTube video. It rocks. It is Iowa’s Senate Majority leader Mike Gronstal making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he will not cooperate with the Republicans to amend Iowa’s constitution to ban gay marriage. He quotes his daughter, Kate, after listening for several minutes to her older colleagues complain about the subject:

“You guys don’t understand. You’ve already lost. My generation doesn’t care.”

Well, I, for one, care. And Mike Gronstal is clearly compassionate and thoughtful on the subject:

I think I learned something from my daughter that day, when she said that. And I’ve talked with other people about it and that’s what I see, Senator McKinley. I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other, and want state law to recognize that.

Is that so wrong? I don’t think thats so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife. You know Ive been married for 37 years. I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other.

No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you.

And Vermont passed gay marriage, this time through the legislature, and overriding a governor’s veto! Sure, gay marriage can be had in only four states today, but I’m getting this hopeful feeling that the cooler heads prevailing in Iowa are the real tipping point. The Right thought California would lead the nation, and they fought hard to win Prop 8, and they won that battle. But while they were fixated on the West Coast, they have been outflanked by the reasonable Midwesterners making reasonable decisions in the middle of the country. Hoorah!

Also good, thank you Tom, is the Supreme Court Summary for Varnum v Brien, which lays out in simple language over six pages the case for why gay marriage ought to be legal. Basically, unless there’s a compelling reason to ban it, equal protection means you should allow it, and there’s no compelling argument for why a state ought to ban it, so, now, Iowa has it!

Like, duh!

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Iowa!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/04/03/iowa-gay-marriage/

We used to visit Newton, IA every year or two for McConeghey family reunions. Iowa’s a nice place, though admittedly somewhat dull. But today, America has a big patch of purple right at its heart because the Iowa Supreme Court has declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Joe Eskenazi explains beautifully in “Will Gay Mecca Relocate From San Francisco To Des Moines?”

Disdain of San Franciscans’ disdain of all things Midwestern has become nearly as clichéd as the original sin. And, yet, there’s always a touch of schadenfreude anticipating city residents’ chagrin whenever legitimately good news emanates from the Midwest indicating its denizens have out-progressived our self-anointed capital of progressivism.

The Iowa Supreme Court this morning did what many observers feel its San Francisco-based California colleagues will not — rule that a ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples. This morning’s decision adds Iowa to the very short list of states in which same-sex marriage is legal — Connecticut, Massachusetts, and, now, The Tall Corn State. Perhaps it’s only fitting for a state with the motto “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

From what I have read, if conservatives want to defeat this, it will require the legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. This could be done by 2011, and even then Iowa residents may not support it. Personally, I’m just really proud to see progress being made on this issue, from of all places, the “fly over country” where I grew up. (Well, I’m from Illinois, but I can still root for the hawkeyes on this one.)

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Better Slacking Through Science!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/04/02/better-slacking-through-science/

Look what I found on the Internet, via a Facebook friend: Facebook, YouTube make better employees: study

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

[ . . . ]

“Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity,” [Study author Brent Coker] said.

Nine percent, biatch! The article points out they’re talking Internet browsing < 20% of the time, and that Internet addicts lose productivity. I think this is consistent with “work-life balance” . . . take a break to clear your mind, then get back to work refreshed.

Taking a walk in the sunshine is also a nice alternative to the Intarnetz.

I also think drinking lots of water and coffee is a good habit: you keep getting out of your chair to adjust your fluid balance, if ya know what I mean. Also, eating-at-your-desk is an awful awful sin which should be committed only when you don’t have much choice. Like, on Tuesday I had an all-day deployment, otherwise I take my food down to a sunny spot in the cafeteria and enjoy with a book or magazine.

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The Sun is an Excellent Magazine

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/28/the-sun-is-an-excellent-magazine/

A couple years back I came upon this magazine somewhere that was all poetry, prose, and black-and-white photographs. And the stuff inside was good. I love reading and I used to mostly keep up with The New Yorker. These days The Sun is one of two magazines I subscribe to. It is more enjoyable and less of a burden than The New Yorker.

Another thing about The Sun that I really appreciate is that there are no ads. Just me and the writer, mediated only by the editorial staff of The Sun and some pleasing typesetting. As the editor, Sy Safransky recently explained in his annual appeal for donations from Friends Of The Sun:

There’s nothing inherently wrong with some advertising, just as there’s nothing inherently wrong with a traveling salesman knocking on your door. But you probably wouldn’t invite the salesman in if you and a friend were having an intimate conversation. In a magazine that strives for emotional candor and a reader’s quiet respect, a sales pitch is an unwelcome distraction. I want to place one simple demand on a reader’s attention: the content. Nothing else.

I sent them some cash last year. This year I figured maybe I can send a couple subscribers? If you’re looking for good stuff to read on a monthly basis, I totally recommend a subscription to The Sun. And if you happen to be kinda poor, drop me a line with your home address because when I renew I have been known to throw in some gift subscriptions and you might could get lucky.

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/

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Bribed by Haagen-Dazs

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/27/oh-god-yum/

Haagen-Dazs responded to my feedback really darn quick. I’ve been slow in sharing. Too busy eating free ice cream . . .

Dear Mr. Howard,

Thank you for your email regarding the change to the size of our Häagen-Dazs cartons. We understand your concern and appreciate your giving us the opportunity to explain.

As you might imagine, the cost of continuing to offer the country’s finest all-natural superpremium ice cream has increased dramatically over the last several years. On average, we’re paying 25% more for raw ingredients today, and this is true despite what you may be hearing about a drop in some food costs.

By downsizing our cartons rather than increasing the price per carton, we’re balancing our need to cover our increased costs with the realization that our country is in an economic recession. We wanted to avoid a price increase that could put Häagen-Dazs out of reach for consumers.

From our choice of ingredients to the careful and deliberate way we craft our ice cream, we never skimp on quality. Nor will we compromise our commitment to 100% all-natural ingredients. We believe Häagen-Dazs ice cream lovers appreciate and rely on that commitment.

Please watch your mail for two gift certificates to arrive shortly, with our hope that you will continue to enjoy your favorite Häagen-Dazs flavors.

Sincerely,

Katty Pien
Häagen-Dazs Brand Director

It’s like 27 flavors of Awesome!

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Xoopit Feedback

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/27/xoopit-feedback/

Some ways back I followed some advice somewhere and tried the Xoopit plugin for Gmail under the delusion that it would somehow make my life better. It was kind of cute but it also got in the way so I uninstalled the plugin. But I kept getting e-mails from them about all the crap it was indexing in my inbox. So, I finally deleted my account, at which point they sent me a message reminding me that I’ll have to kill the plugin, and also:

I’m not going to stick something in my mouth that is named “choke.” (CC: spychic)

Finally, please take one minute and reply to this email and let us know what you didn’t like about Xoopit. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us!

Now, getting in to delete the account had been frustrating enough, because when you don’t remember your password and click on the password reset link they send you an e-mail that links to a web page where you can reset your password after you correctly enter your password. Yeah, that had me confused too, until I re-read the thing and it said “enter your Gmail password” which worked but then I was reminded that I’d given my Gmail password to something called Xoopit and I felt dirty all over again.

Anyway, here’s some of what I wrote. I think the name thing is important:

Also, and I mean, what’s in a name? I don’t eat artichokes. They may be delicious, but you know what? I’m not going to stick something in my mouth that is named “choke” . . . it just sounds like common sense. Xoopit? Okay? Like Arm pit? Tar pit? Snake pit? Is it pronounced Zoo Pit? Is that like where they dump all the animal feces to compost? Because I mean, they way you guys Hoover up all the multimedia crap in my Gmail it kinda feels that way. “Look! Look! I indexed all the crap you don’t care to look at, and I’m sending you more crap to delete!”

There is too much crap in my inbox. If you can make it better, you could be more useful to me. If you make it worse, I dump you. That’s it!

And, seriously, xoopit? You need to work on that name. Yes, Google is the best search engine, but it wouldn’t have caught on if it were named Dogpile.

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Al Gore Feeds Global Warming Skeptics

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/27/al-gore-feeds-global-warming-skeptics/

The other day at lunch my coworker challenged me:

“You know that Global Warming isn’t real, right?”

“Uh huh,” I said.

“No, really! Don’t just agree with me because you think I’m crazy!”

“Uh huh. Well . . .”

He then went on to explain that we only know how much carbon is in the atmosphere for a few centuries, max. I then explained that scientists go to Antarctica and Greenland, drill deep holes in the ice, and can analyze the frozen atmosphere from tens of thousands of years ago. He explains that carbon has fluctuated a great deal over time, and it is no big deal, and I explain that our species has developed civilization during a period of climatic stability, and that the last time there was this much carbon in the atmosphere there were dinosaurs running around, so the Earth can totally handle global warming but we’re not sure if homo homo sapiens will survive it. He was like well its too late to stop it anyway, and I would have gone on to explain that when you’re driving your car into a tree, you hit the breaks instead of the gas, because then you’re more likely to live and have a better chance of reducing damage to and repairing your car . . . but we headed back to the office before things got too stupid.

And then, today, Al Gore posts a dramatic video to his blog.

And I watch it, and I’m like “yeah . . . glacier retreating.” Then I look at the caption:

This remarkable image sequence captures a series of massive calving events at Columbia Glacier near Valdez, Alaska. Composed of 436 frames taken between May and September of 2007, it shows the glacier rapidly retreating by about half a mile (1.6 kilometers), a volume loss of some 0.4 cubic miles (1.67 cubic kilometers) of ice or 400 billion gallons (1.5 trillion liters) of water.

And I’m like “a dramatic video of a glacier melting in Alaska over the course of five months . . . in the summer!”

And I’m like “Holy crap, Al, do you ever speak with a skeptic?! A dramatic video of a glacier melting in the summer makes you look like a tool!”

But, there’s no comments or feedback on his blog, so if I wish to sublimate my angst, I’ll do it here.

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Capital One Visa are Greedy Bastards

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/20/capital-one-visa-are-greedy-bastards/

Recently someone obtained my social security number and home address and phoned in to various credit card companies claiming to be me, claiming they were traveling and needed a cash advance. They claimed they had left the credit card at home and otherwise failed to provide correct information. So, the credit card companies said no, and each in turn called me, and offered to send me new cards with new credit card numbers, just in case, and I put a fraud alert on my credit report, and aside from the idea that someone is running around with my social security number and will surely try to identity thieve one day in the future, life went on happily.

My Chase credit cards both appeared overnight, on my doorstep, courtesy of FedEx. I have double-checked now, and seen no fees for this courtesy. Capital One, on the other hand, appeared the next week via first class USPS. That’s good enough for me, but what also appeared the next week was a statement with a $16.00 “Fast Card Fee”.

So, instead of calling in to activate the card, I called customer support. Within a few minutes I got a nice lady on the line, and instead of activating I simply canceled the card. I explained that the Fast Card Fee was insulting and wrong. She processed the cancellation and asked if there was anything else to be done. I thought a moment and asked to speak to the manager and when she asked why I explained that I wanted the Fast Card Fee refunded since the fee was not disclosed to me when the service was offered and contrary to her understanding the card was not dispatched “express mail” rather USPS First Class and further more those cards that had bothered with the expense of overnight mail didn’t charge me anything.

She went away for two minutes and when she returned she explained that she had gotten the fee reversed on the grounds that it had not been disclosed, but that even though the fee was canceled I should go ahead and pay the minimum balance by the due date and it would subsequently be refunded to me. I explained that I would do no such thing because by canceling the fee my balance would be 0 by the due date and if they want to charge me a late fee for failing to pay a zero balance . . .

Anyway, we’ll see. I’m mailing the thing back to them with a note and if they want to dig a deeper hole I’ll give them what for. As it is it is just nice to vent a little testimonial on my web site.

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I Scream!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/03/12/haagen-dazs-downsizing/

I just learned that Haagen Dazs are downsizing their ice cream cartons from 16oz to 14oz. I don’t like this!

Feedback to Haagen Dazs:

If this were any other food, reducing the size a bit to keep costs in line and maybe keep us from getting fat is a reasonable thing. But Haagen Dazs isn’t food, it is Joy in the form of a delicious treat and I would much rather pay a little bit more for Joy than receive less.

Ben and Jerry’s is keeping their size and their comparable price, but their ice cream is overly-sweet glop. Haagen Dazs is a superior product for which I’d gladly pay a bit more!

Sincerely,
-daniel

UPDATE: Haagen-Dazs responded by sending me free ice cream!

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Carbon Tax?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/02/12/carbon-tax/

It has been a pretty busy day at work. In between bouts of business I entertain myself with various baubles like mailing lists. Someone made a statement I found utterly hilarious, that in the context of current events:

“I think it would be politically possible to return to a gold standard.”

I responded that:

“I think a carbon tax would be more relevant to the concerns of the 21st Century.”

To which some else responded:

“Our currency and economy are broken, and the solution is to tax use of fossil fuels, biggest source of productivity the world has ever seen!”

And I though yeah . . . it is hard to advocate an idea like a new “tax” during a recession. Personally, I think calling it a “carbon ration” might be smarter: you get your allotment and if you make good lifestyle choices you can sell your excess at a profit. Anyway, I responded from the basis of an idea I heard at TED last week:

Over a century ago we swore up and down that without the cheap energy afforded by black slaves the national economy would collapse. So, instead of abolishing slavery we made compromise after compromise. Ultimately our nation was plunged into the catastrophe of civil war, and we abolished slavery for International PR reasons and in order to literally free up fresh soldiers for the war effort from among the newly-emancipated populations.

These days we swear up and down that without access to unlimited cheap energy, our economy would collapse and we would be unable to enjoy the “quality” of life we do now. And as each decade passes we find greater and greater evidence that we are living on borrowed time, and that we are multiplying the problem of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and that we are approaching various global tipping points which bring us closer to catastrophe.

In both cases, abolitionists and environmentalists are ridiculed and despised an know-it-all killjoys out to ruin everyone’s fun. Where the abolitionists had printing presses that would literally be burned down by their detractors, modern radicals warm themselves with flame wars on the Internet.

To go back to your glib response to a carbon tax, it is easier to make radical changes when it is clear that the status quo is broken. A big reason for the present crisis is that we were fueling growth on unsustainable credit models. Debt Debt Debt. Injecting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is a form of debt against the future, and if we go bankrupt with climate that’s really really not pretty. So, we have a good opportunity to look at how we structure the free market to take natural resources like the atmosphere into account, and price them appropriately so that we can realize economic benefit with the greatest efficiency.

Maybe one way to think of the idea of carbon rationing is that it is like Social Security for the environment: we each make a sacrifice now so as to secure against a future characterized by poverty. In this case the poverty would be a world wrecked by sudden catastrophic climate changes.

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Valentine’s Day: Courage Campaign Petition

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/02/11/valentines-day-courage-campaign-petition/

You remember Ken Starr? That guy who focused the nation’s attention and energy on Bill Clinton’s penis? Yeah, whatever.

“On December 19, 2008, Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and seeking to nullify the marriages of 18,000 devoted same-sex couples solemnized before Prop 8 passed.”

I have nothing nice to say. but if you hit this page and sign your name before Valentine’s Day maybe you’ll feel slightly better for a moment. Not really.

Okay, why do I care about the gays? Because I grew up as a nerdy Atheist kid. So, I grew up learning that human beings have a bad habit of shitting on the weird people. Nowadays I live in the happy wealthy bubble of the Silicon Valley, where nerds are admired and showered with wealth. And every time Barack Obama mentions “and the non-believers” I feel a twinge of optimism that we are making progress toward inclusiveness.

And I have long observed that The Gay get shat upon far far worse than Atheists or nerds have ever had it in my lifetime. All sorta of awful name-calling and we still have the occasional grotesquely cruel murder of some queer folks. You wanna get married? Hell, you just want people to stop spitting in your face? I’m 100% behind you.

So, every time I hear things are going well for the homosexuals, my heart cheers that the meek are a step closer to inheriting the Earth. And every time the Kenneth Starrs of the world make progress in the opposite direction, I take it somewhat personally. I am tired of this shit.

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