dobthoughts

Natural Habitat

2010-02-12T09:25:00.000-06:00

Have you ever met someone who is just so in their element that you are in awe of what they can accomplish, all with a smile on their face? I'm having that experience now. Sahil Lavingia of One Week App fame is rocking it the way all software developers should. It's that perfect Zen coding experience.

I signed up as a beta tester for his app, Dayta, and spent a couple days back and forth with him getting his app to load on my iPod touch. I felt like I was getting in his way, but he kept at it, and we got it working this morning. I clicked around, got a crash, found a couple of minor tweaks he could make, and sent him my crash report and suggestions. He emailed me back that he fixed those in an hour. How many of you can sit down and space out at your desk for an hour?

This experience got me thinking... what Sahil has created is his own little slice of the world that plays to his strengths. You can call it finding his passion, being in the zone, or whatever slick phrase you want to use, but he's got it. His website is a model for how good software developers work. He's showing constant progress, getting regular feedback, and getting into the heads of his customers. Granted, his app is targeted at geeks that get into this kind of thing, but you can still make a decent living targeting that group.

Watching his website is like watching the making of special feature on a DVD while the moving is still being shot. What a ride.

OneWeekApp

2010-02-09T10:34:00.000-06:00

As a wannabe iPhone developer, I have been following Sahil Lavingia's One Week App experiment with great interest. He's building an iPhone application this week, from scratch.

The most interesting part is that he's doing all of this in public, and asking for feedback along the way. I'm picking up a lot of useful tidbits in both his design and coding process.

And the App, it's looking pretty interesting -- data entry and tracking. Go check it out at oneweekapp.com.

Relief

2010-02-09T08:48:00.002-06:00

The Apple Store was down a few minutes ago. That usually means they are updating their products. Since I just bought an iMac a week ago, it's hard not to imagine they will be offering a new model at half the price with twice the power.

Whew! It was just an update to Aperture.

Destiny Revealed

2010-02-04T22:17:00.005-06:00

Originally uploaded by ryandobson

I've had a curious relationship with my Mac's. Each one has been dubbed a new name. I sort of feel like Chaos Manor, in this respect. I remember reading Jerry's column in Byte, and he was always talking about some computer with a new name.

The new iMac's name is Destiny, because it's my fourth Mac, I like Stargate Universe, and I hope to turn a new corner on this Mac.

My first Mac's (a dual-USB iBook) name was "Apropos", and I just always liked running that command on Unix. The next, a PowerPC Mac mini, is named "Babylon", after Babylon 5, the best Sci-Fi series out there. Babylon is still running strong. My third, "Campbell", named after Bruce Campbell, is a 15" MacBook Pro that I use at my day job.

Funny naming, but it keeps me creative. Here's to a new Apple rising.

How to Report the News

2010-02-01T09:31:00.000-06:00

And this is why I don't watch network news anymore...

New Theme

2010-01-30T07:02:00.000-06:00

Inspired by my wife's new blog and theme, I started looking for a new theme to use. I ended up with dailynotes from templatesblock.com. I'll probably be modifying it as we go along, but drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

iPad

2010-01-27T14:21:00.000-06:00

So, iPad it is.

This is pretty much everything I asked for here. It'll be missing Flash support, but I do suppose that is the best thing for the web. I'm still a little torn on that, but this will take HTML 5 where it needs to go. Now... at a starting price of $499, I'm blown away.

I could live with a WiFi only version of this, however the no-contract pricing they got for 3G access for this is phenomenal -- $14.99 for 250MB, or $29.99 for unlimited (per month). Let me emphasize the no-contract for that. You can buy one of these, and activate 3G access for it for just the month that you want to go out and take a trip where you won't have WiFi access. That is a big selling point for me. I'm not a road warrior, so I don't need this all the time. Without a contract, this is quite tempting. And it is just a bit more expensive than one of those mobile WiFi plans -- but you get the full benefit of the coverage of a 3G cellular connection.

I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on one of these.

The Tablet

2010-01-27T09:24:00.001-06:00

Preface: I wrote this on January 5th, but never got around to posting it. I thought I'd put it up today, just before the announcement.

I can't help but write something about all the rumors floating around about Apple's impending iSlate, iPad, iTablet, or whatever they'll call it. No one knows for sure, but there is so much speculation out there it's almost like the speculation itself will create the product.

Apple has proven that they can define a market that makes sense (I'd say redefine, but they rarely look at something like that). The iPhone has taken 'smart' phones and brought them down to the level where normal people can use them without a PhD. Honestly, if you take a look out there... only the Droid is starting to compete -- but it's still a little geeky for mere mortals. It defines a whole paradigm for mobile hand-held computing. The iPod was also a market defining product. It took a few years to implement, but they slowly and steadily took a fringe market and made it mainstream. It does take focus to build this stuff out, and when they focus -- watch out.

Apple isn't immune to missteps, though. I think AppleTV is one of them. It just seems to be missing something. I think it's missing that true Apple focus to make it happen. Apple doesn't dominate that market, and it is a crowded market. Of course, when Apple came out with this product -- it did more than the others. It's just that it seems to have withered on the vine since then. People want it to do more, and Apple stubbornly sticks to the same story of "it wasn't meant to do that". I'm hoping for a surprise here, but I'm just not too sure.

The time is right for something new in the space between the iPhone and MacBook. Netbooks are creeping into this territory, but Apple doesn't want to make a crippled MacBook. It's time for a new interaction model to cover what people do in this space. I'm probably not the target market for this, but let me try and speculate what I'd do with it.

Watch videos. I will occasionally go out to the car at lunch or on a plane to watch a show or video podcast on my iPod touch. Sometimes I'll take it up to bed, but usually when I'm home I'll use my MacBook to watch videos online. Neither of these experiences work well for me - I'd prefer a screen size between the two, and an interface that doesn't get it the way -- something closer to the iPhone OS works well for this.

Read books. I've been reading a PDF book lately on my MacBook, and it's just not ideal. The interface just gets in the way. I've also tried several e-reader apps on the iPod touch, and it is okay for a few lines of text, but my hand gets tired and I have to keep my eyes too close to the device. I've used the smaller Kindle, and it's great for the books that they distribute, but you need the bigger one to really enjoy a PDF on it, otherwise the text is just too small. If the iSlate incorporates some book-like e-reader functionality, it would have to be comfortable to hold and have an interface that doesn't get in the way. I'm not fond of any of the 'standards' out there, so I'd like this to be an open-ended sort of application.

Compose messages. Email, Blog posts, and Twitter updates come to mind first here. I don't enjoy writing emails on the iPhone. It's better than others, but for anything more than a screenful, I'd just rather have some space to edit with. The laptop is great for this, but I will often get distracted with other things while I'm supposed to be writing -- I've had to resort to tricking myself with apps like WriteRoom and OmmWriter to keep myself focused on the task at hand. I honestly can't imaging touch-typing on an over-sized iPhone, so I don't quite know how they'd solve this one for me without a keyboard or a pen. If they do pick a pen (an odd choice, considering how most pen computers have gone out of favor), I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much since my handwriting has become so poor from lack of practice. Either way, the task itself is something that I'd like to do on a tweener device like this.

Browse the web. The big time suck that it is, and probably my worst addition. I want the full web, though. As much as Flash annoys me for being a proprietary plug-in that mostly just sucks through my CPU, I'd still prefer it to be on a device of this class -- if only just to let me access the multitude of free web videos out there that rely on this. HTML 5 just doesn't look like it solved that video problem yet. Some online apps still require Flash for some of their more graphical widgets as well, like Mint's charts.

Casual games. Maybe just a little bit. I don't game much anymore, but I like a few games on the iPod touch. I'm trying to get through Monkey Island again, because I loved that game growing up, and I open up Pocket God every now and then. The rest seem to be seasonal for me, depending on what mood I'm in.

That's it. Anything more than that, and I'd say go get a MacBook. It's not much, but it's a big portion of my day that could be moved from either the iPhone or the MacBook. Other stuff would be great, but I probably wouldn't use any of that in my purchasing decision.

Notice how only two of those really would require network access? And only one of those needs constant connectivity. I think this device could get away with being WiFi only. There's enough free WiFi out there to make that convenient. With the size of a tablet, you're not going to be walking around holding it and networking -- it's more of a sit down and use it device.

Now, let's consider price. I think it's got to fit between the high-end iPod touch and the MacBook. You could have a high-end model that encroaches on MacBook territory, but there needs to be at least one model that's usable in between the other products.

The real fun with Apple is how are they going to get there. There has to be some software magic to pull all of this together into a new platform that doesn't make you feel like you're missing something from the MacBook, or that too much has been crusted over the iPhone. I agree with the others out there that there is going to be something different about this platform that makes it feel different enough to be it's own device.

As a developer, I want Apple to use the same development platform to make this happen, and I want some sort of App Store.

Journalists Need Retraining

2010-01-05T16:11:00.002-06:00

I find this article amusing: Cut This Story!. Basically, journalists have added too much subjective flourish to their writing for color, and they're missing the point of what it takes to compete in Internet-time news.

A Good Day

2009-10-27T20:07:00.001-05:00

I spent a few moments with Nate this morning. He woke up as I was passing by his room, and just wanted me to hold him. I picked him up, after retrieving his pacifier which had fallen, and held him in the rocking chair in his room. He just snuggled in and went back to sleep. It must have only been five minutes, but it felt longer. Just rocking. Those are the moments we live for. When we're just there for someone else, no matter how small. Someone we love.

How much time do we spend thinking about things that aren't in the present? How to make more money? What to do tomorrow? What needs to be done? How we're going to do something? What to do about something that's already happened? What if we did something different instead?

We'd all be a happier if we lived a little bit more in the here and now. That's the only time we ever really have where we can make a difference.

Running

2009-09-03T07:02:00.000-05:00

So, I've completed my first week of running as a hobby. This is something I've tried on and off for a decade or so (mostly off), but always found an excuse to avoid it. Well, I'm out of excuses, and here's why. Those of you who have been around me for the past few months might have known I've lost a few extra pounds.

Alexis joined WeightWatchers awhile back to help lose some of the baby weight, and I felt the need to join her on this path. We officially started out on this path on April 1st. One thing they encourage is walking... it starts off nice and easy. In fact, it was easy to slip in a 20-30 minute walk on my lunch break that I started doing that pretty regularly. Not bad. It worked quite well. Then, the weather got really hot down here in Texas... 66+ days over 100 so far these season. Noon didn't seem like such a good time to walk anymore, so I started getting up early to walk -- that's where things started getting interesting, because I kept walking further and further... until I was up to 1.5 hours without feeling like I got much out of it.

So, for awhile I hopped back on my bike and did that for a few weeks, getting my normal 5-6 mile circuit time down from 45 minutes to 25... but it didn't provide much of a challenge, and looping that circuit was a bit boring. So, I decided to try mixing some running into the morning walk. I started off slow, a count of thirty in my head to run for a stint, and then walk until I caught my breath again. Amazingly, I was able to do that -- I never had much confidence in my running ability. So I tried it the next day... and the day after that, my knee started throbbing. Aw -- I knew there would be something.

After a couple of weeks, and a vacation, I decided that I should give it a proper go. So, on the advice of other friends that are runners, I went to RunTex to get 'fitted' for a shoe. Now, I'm the kind of guy who buys $30 sneakers, so I was not looking forward to this. My experience at the store was less than desirable, mostly because I felt the salesperson seemed to think I was an inconvenience and I had to ask explictly for everything... not exactly good for a beginner. He did watch my gait and recommended a 'motion control' shoe, which at least let me look up on the Internet what the heck that meant later. After a couple more visits, I ended up with a pair of Adidas Foundation 8s.

So, I was finally ready to run. I picked some random training program off of the Internet (I'm not sure I could find it again if I tried) that looked as easy as I could. Basically, it's an 8 week plan to be able to run for 2 miles (this plays into that confidence thing). I'm still a little nervous I'm going to blow out a knee or something crazy, so this looked good to me at the time. The first week of the plan starts off with running for one minute, walking for 2 minutes, and repeat that ten times.

I managed to figure out how to program my watch to beep at the appropriate times for this plan, so I didn't have to pay attention to what I was doing... I just have to hit a button when I switched from walking to running and vice versa -- nice. I found that a minute of running was roughly equivalent to my count of thirty in my head, so I was already a bit prepared for this training.

I've now completed the first week of my training, which amounts to 4 runs in 7 days, plus a couple of days of just walking. Next week, I'll be programming the watch every day as the training steps up the time running from here on out, but I'm encouraged. My one knee aches a bit today, so I'll be taking tomorrow off, but this is nowhere near the pain I had when I first started. I'm also feeling quite a bit more accomplished, so I decided to write this blog post as a pat on the back for myself. ;-)

Independence Day

2009-07-04T09:58:00.001-05:00

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

On this day, we celebrate the forging of a great nation. A nation conceived to secure the blessings of liberty for all it's citizens. There is much opportunity left in this land, if we dare achieve it. We need not look to the government to provide for us, but to use our freedom to seek it out and keep fostering our more perfect union to provide for the generations to come.

God Bless the USA.

8 Hours on Saturday

2009-04-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

See: texas twosome plus one.

Regenerate = Derma-Full

2009-04-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is just creepy.

Avon is selling a new facial cream, and they have been airing this ad for it.

Flash back to a certain video-game-become-movie trailer, which had an injection known as Regenerate that happened to unleash a zombie plague on the world.

The similarities are just too creepy for me. Wouldn't you go out of your way to avoid coincidences like this?

The History of Monopoly

2009-03-29T09:52:00.001-05:00

To settle an argument while on vacation, we had to look up the history of the board game Monopoly. This is quite a fascinating history, dating back to the early 1900's. The game was designed to illustrate the negative effects of rent and taxation, specifically to promote Georgism. I'm not sure it had much effect on public opinion, but it makes me want to create a game to highlight the benefits of the FairTax. ;-)

The Creator's Culture

2009-03-19T13:37:00.000-05:00

I ran across a very insightful blog posting today that I have to share.

In this community, production is valued. Members celebrate other individual’s hard work, congratulating them when they release their new products.
...
Hard work, creativity, passion, production — that is what is rewarded and celebrated.

This is what our country (heck -- the world!) needs more of.

As we celebrate the those that do not produce, we ourselves question the value of hard work, and it leads to nasty things like dependency on government and apathy for our purpose in life. If we're not careful, we'll end up like the humans in Wall-E.

So, without further ado, go out there and make something!

FairTax Special Order

2009-03-18T16:37:00.001-05:00

This is long (an hour), but goes over most of the arguments for FairTax.

http://www.fairtaxnation.com/.

Rah! Rah! Rah!

2009-03-09T07:50:00.000-05:00

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

- Yoda

It's time to stop fearing "the economy".

I Love Cartoons

2009-02-27T14:31:00.000-06:00

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Well Played

2009-02-24T08:42:00.001-06:00

Bit of a Slump

2009-02-16T21:17:00.000-06:00

I just haven't been in the mood lately to post. It seems to me that my government has gone insane, spending away our (great?) grandchildren's tax money. There's all this talk about stimulating the economy, but it is just politics as usual.

Nothing in the "stimulus" bill is really meant to get things moving. The President is relying on fear to bully his agenda through Congress. He learned very well from the previous administration how to do that. There is just a token amount in the bill to create jobs, most of it is long-term. Congress sailed it through because there are enough hands in the till these days, no one notices what is really happening. This is all about government control. Federal control. Bringing more power to the federal government, because who isn't getting money from this?

Never mind that most of our representatives couldn't even read the final text of the 1000-page bill because it hasn't been posted long enough. So much for transparency.

Let's do some math for fun. I heard this on Dave Ramsey, but I wanted to see it in print:

	$787,000,000,000.00
divided by	3,500,000.00	jobs
equals	$224,857.14	per job

How's that for government efficiency on creating or saving jobs? And every time I hear that number from our representatives it gets smaller or just downplayed as an estimate.

According to the IRS, there are about 138 million taxpayers in the U.S. If we take that same number above, that would come out to about $5700/taxpayer. Add in last years $800 billion bank welfare program, and we're talking about $11,500 per taxpayer in the United States.

$11,500 per taxpayer. That represents the tax on a single person in the US making about $60,600 per year in taxed income. I want you to think of this not as money being paid to you, but money being taken from you. Just let that soak in.

Who do you think is going to pay for this, if the government is already spending more than it takes in? Yep: our children, grandchildren, and their children. You would think that people would learn from Madoff that this is just a Ponzi scheme played out at a whole new level.

The real catch is, this little scheme isn't going to do anything for the economy. We are the economy. The economy will recover when we all stop feeling scared about losing our jobs and start buying things again. How do you really do that? Well, how about offering companies a $20,000 tax credit for every employee that they hire this year (net gain in employment)? Let's see how that math looks:

	$20,000	per job
multiplied by	3,500,000	jobs
equals	$70,000,000,000	total

Hmmm... Dave's plan cost's 10x less than then one that just sailed through Congress. It's almost a rounding error -- heck, they've knocked that much out of the plan that just went through over the course of the last couple of weeks.

This plan stops the hemorrhaging in jobs, brings confidence back to the American consumer, and starts immediately.

It's just too bad no one in Washington will listen to this plan, since it doesn't offer any more power for them.

He Who Has the Gold, Rules

2009-02-02T14:13:00.000-06:00

Ah, it's nice to see that some people are paying attention out there.

Do you wonder why Obama is letting the Republicans and Democrats do whatever they want with the stimulus package? The answer to me is quite obvious - he doesn’t care about it and what it does. Look through it - it is chump change for everyone. $1,000 tax break per couple, some money for states and cities, money for the road builders, some for solar energy, some for university students, but all of it chump change. The simple reason is that he doesn’t care about the stimulus because it doesn’t matter.

The big prize is what his funders in the financial sector want and that is the bad bank where they can pour the multi-trillions of dollars of bad loans onto the taxpayer without losing their jobs, their stockholders being wiped out, and some of them having to do the perp walk. It is the next banking bailout where the massive transfer from the taxpayers to the wealthy is going to occur. Watch the ball. Don’t listen to the words, believe the “shocked” indignation, or accept that Obama and the Congressional Democrats do not know what is going on.

http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/01/31/understanding-the-obama-stimulus/

About this Recession...

2009-01-05T21:59:00.000-06:00

So, remember back in April, when I stated that we weren't in a recession? Apparently, I don't know what I'm talking about, as the NBER issued a statement last month that yes indeed we have been in a recession since November of 2007.

To be fair to me, they did correct the data, and the recession started in the last quarter that I had data for. Here's an updated chart:

Now the chart does indeed dip below zero a couple of times. This alone isn't enough to warrant a recession, though... so what else was happening?

Well, there were a couple of things. First, NBER looks at factors other than GDP, "The committee believes that domestic production and employment are the primary conceptual measures of economic activity." So, they're looking at employment as well as production, and employment "reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then."

Second, since I was just looking at the GDP data, I missed an important point about the variance of that data against the Gross Domestic Income data.

The committee believes that the two most reliable comprehensive estimates of aggregate domestic production are normally the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Product and the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Income, both produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In concept, the two should be the same, because sales of products generate income for producers and workers equal to the value of the sales. However, because the measurement on the product and income sides proceeds somewhat independently, the two actual measures differ by a statistical discrepancy. ... [T]he currently available estimates of quarterly aggregate real domestic production do not speak clearly about the date of a peak in activity.

So, clearly they're looking a little deeper than I did. I'll make another post when I get that data tabulated and charted so we can examine it closer. For now, let's look at the employment data. This comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I can only see monthly data there that preceeds the current recession by a month (ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb1.txt).

So, there is other data to cull through, but for now, I've at least pointed out why my previous post was inaccurate.

Removing the Link Between Money and Laws in Congress

2009-01-05T13:31:00.000-06:00

I have to admit, that I wasn't a fan of this plan at first. Lessig has made a compelling case that the most important problem we need to solve with our Congress is their need to perpetually raise money to be re-elected. This need keeps them from focusing on the real problems we face.

Vote for FairTax

2008-12-20T09:10:00.000-06:00

Change.org is running a program called Ideas for Change in America.

Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven effort to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies. You can help by submitting an idea for how you would change America, discussing ideas with others, and/or voting for your favorites.

FairTax is already listed there, but more people need to vote on it. Go out and vote for FairTax at: https://www.change.org/ideas/view/fair_tax

What I'd Like to Give My Son for Christmas

2008-12-10T09:01:00.000-06:00

Lincoln's Cannots

2008-11-05T15:59:00.000-06:00

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker

A Crisp November Morning

2008-11-04T08:34:00.001-06:00

There's nothing like fall. The crisp, damp morning air makes each breath even more noticeable. Going for a short walk in this air reminds me what a blessing my life is.

As I walked in this early morning air, I enjoyed the right to go out to the polls and cast my ballot. This right is not taken lightly by me, and for all our country's problems, the solutions lie in our people. Today is just one step out of many, and we're allowed to make mistakes -- but they're our mistakes. This is where democracy starts.

Take this one step today, and go out and vote.

The "Rescue" Plan, in Plain English

2008-10-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

To stimulate lending, the bailout plan will attempt to recapitalize banks. The method of recapitalization is best described as robbing Taxpayer Pete to pay Wall Street Paul. In essence, money is taken from the poor (via taxes, printing, and weakening of the dollar) and given to the wealthy so the wealthy supposedly will have enough money to lend back (at interest) to those who have just been robbed.

If you prefer comics, then you'll like this one from Sinfest:

Yes, Virginia, there is Pork in the Bailout

2008-10-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

As I've been striving to learn Congressional process, after being very annoyed at the pork hiding in the Bailout bill, I stumbled across the Wikipedia entry for H.R. 1424.

I should have known better, but wanted to struggle through the raw text myself. All 3 divisions were indeed passed as the same law, so all that pork is sent to the pit. I still have a lot to learn, as this practice is common. Most of this is just disgusting to me, as the three Acts in this bill have nothing in common with each other.

No wonder our government spends so much.

::sigh::

2008-10-03T16:57:00.000-05:00

"Pray for our republic," intoned Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, a leading opponent of the measure. "She's being placed in very uncaring and greedy hands."

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081003/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

Now, I have to vote everyone out of office that voted for this thing. Thankfully, my Representative, Michael McCaul, voted against this bill. Unfortunately, Senators Cornyn and Hutchison now must go.

A Letter from Joe Biden

2008-10-03T07:41:00.001-05:00

In my quest to spread The Common Sense Fix I've exposed myself to probably far to many mailing lists. This was pretty evident this morning when I received an email from Joe Biden.

Ryan --
If you saw tonight's debate, you saw Governor Sarah Palin give a spirited defense of the same disastrous policies that have failed us for the past eight years.
She couldn't identify a single area where she or John McCain would change George W. Bush's economic or foreign policy positions.
If you want something different, Barack and I need your help.
Make a donation of $5 or more right now to bring about the change we need.
The change we need is fixing this broken economy from the bottom up -- not tax breaks for the wealthy and huge corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas. We need to focus on defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and restoring America's standing in the world -- not an unending commitment in Iraq.
Let's be clear: Governor Palin and Senator McCain are offering nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies at home and abroad, trying to disguise them in the rhetoric of change.
Americans need real solutions and real change.
We're in this together and there's a lot to do before Election Day. Please make a donation of $5 or more right now to support this campaign for change:
https://donate.barackobama.com/changeweneed
This is the most important presidential election you'll be part of in your life.
Thank you for all that you're doing.
Now let's get to work and change this country,
Joe

Here's my reply, which I'm sure will go nowhere.

Ah, Joe, more of the same. I watched the debate and saw very little of consequence for the average American. All I saw is the same politics as usual -- from both sides. You're right, we need real change in this country.
I'm tired of the same old class warfare arguments that tell me to start making one group or another pay more of the burden of running this country. It's time we got back to "All Men Are Create Equal", and started believing in it again. Punishing successful Americans for their income is not the answer, it just creates a disincentive to build wealth and become better.
Corporations are wealth distribution machines, as a company does not amass 'wealth'. Corporations build jobs. Heavily taxing corporations just gives less incentive for them to build them here. It is about time we started making America compete in the world marketplace, and give corporations a reason to create jobs here.
Think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.
The only way we're going to get out of this mess is to grow this economy. It's time for real change. We need to stop taking so much money away from the American people to give to a bloated government that spends far more than it takes in. Government needs to focus on creating incentives for businesses to start up and thrive in these United States.
It's time for real change. Let's get to work. Three initiatives to get us on track are The Common Sense Fix, change-congress.org, and fairtax.org. It's time for change that can make a difference.
Ryan

I'm not sure if any of this will make a difference, but it feels far better than doing nothing, or whining about it around the water cooler.

I'm Tired... of Election Year Politics

2008-10-02T21:29:00.000-05:00

I'm tired of all the same old rhetoric, the same politicking, the same class warfare, and the same corruption. It's time for real change in our government, not more of the same. That's why I've had several politically directed posts in the past several months. I think it's time to enumerate just what I'm tired of.

Class Warfare

Whenever I hear the words rich, poor, greedy, or redistribution of wealth, I know that the person talking is just trying to get us to fight amongst ourselves so they can walk off with the money, power, or whatever it is they set out to take. It's a tactic to deflect from real issues.

Fairness comes from equality, not placing different standards on any particular class of people. Anyone who talks differently is just trying to play one group against another. It is time to stop playing that game. This is one of the reasons I started supporting FairTax, which would take away the inequities in the current tax code and make taxes fair.

Evil Corporations

This mostly involves talk about taxing the excessive profits that a company makes. On the surface, companies appear to pay many taxes -- taxes against their profits, taxes against the income they are providing employees, and taxes on investments they make. Over the water cooler, I heard recently about the tax benefits of employing a workforce in India (I am not kidding).

Now, think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.

It all sounds good when the evil corporation being taxed isn't identified as you, but in some way or another, you are on that list. That's what makes corporate taxes such an effective way at hiding the true nature of a tax. Again, that's another reason I'm supporting FairTax.

Corruption

The whole process has become corrupt. Money invades and distorts at every level of politics. Earmarks are a staple of the modern political arsenal.

Take a gander at the latest atrocity coming out of government, know as The $700 Billion Bailout. It's 451 pages long!!! For something that has been deemed so critical to our economy, I would have thought they'd be brief and expedient (for reference, The Common Sense Fix is only a single page long, though it might grow to 5 pages it it was formatted like the current bill).

If you bother to scan through that document, you'd find juicy provisions for Energy, Mental Health, Disaster Relief, Film and Television Production, a Motorsports Racing Track Facility, Railroad Track Maintenance, Mine Rescue Team Training, Economic Development for Samoa, and I'm not even covering half of it. Who doesn't have their hand in the till for this one? Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up.

[Note: In reexamining the text, I found that E.E.S.A. is part of Division A, and most of the other troubling stuff I've noted above come from Divisions B & C. I've found a better link for E.E.S.A. here. All these Divisions appear to be part of HR 1424 (which comes from the Senate website), but it's not clear to me if they all are voted on at once. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.]

I'd recommend reading the bill for entertainment value as well. The name given for the bill is E.E.S.A. (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act) and it's main provision is for a T.A.R.P. (Troubled Assets Relief Program), apparently to cover their backsides. It sounds like stuff out of an old comic book!

This is just normal business in Congress. This bill is an ordinary knitting together of all the wants and needs of various constituents, tying together various parts of other legislation, nipping here, extending there -- such that most of the bill is illegible. It makes for a great opportunity to sneak things in.

I would guess that most elected officials don't read the whole bill, and instead read something like this summary of the bailout, which conveniently leaves out all the earmarks hiding in that little bill. Heck, I don't think even journalists read this stuff, because I've certainly never seen it on CNN.

This is why I'm supporting the Change Congress movement. We've got to demand real change out of our system, and vigilantly defend our government from the corruption that has infected it.

The Common Sense Fix

2008-09-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

I love Dave Ramsey. He's the guy out there giving financial advice that my grandmother would give. Since my grandparents lived through the Great Depression, I trust them. He has a plan that makes sense, and we should pass this, instead of incurring more national debt.

Here's a quick and dirty summary of the plan:

Insure the subprime mortgages
Remove mark-to-market accounting rules for 2 years
Eliminate capital gains taxes

Go read it at daveramsey.com, and send it to your congress representatives. Congress needs to hear from us that we know what we want.

Bringing our Country Back from the Brink

2008-09-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

Who can escape the news of the proposed $700 billion bailout program? Well, not I, and it has been bothering me. I can't support this kind of action, it just seems ill-advised for our government to grow this much -- not matter what kind of oversight there is. So, I wrote this letter to my Senators and Congressmen.

There is another plan out there that can help this situation, and let the market fix itself. One of the biggest reasons for this problem we're in is because of government regulation in the form of Sarbanes-Oxley. While that law isn't without merit (it did have good intentions), it's heavily contributed to this problem with sub-prime mortgages because the market hasn't adjusted to this way of thinking.

I usually hate regurgitating other material, but Dave Ramsey has posted a very good explanation of the current situation. I'd recommend you read the full text here, but I'll requote what Dave learned from economist Simon Wesbury:

"... if we change ... one rule and don't force [companies] to mark [sub-primes] down to market value and just let them hold on to all the stuff ... for [a fixed] period of time ... -- a temporary change -- that'll free the market up."

The cost is also far less be much simpler to implement. We need to make smart decisions about our country, and be prudent with taxpayers' money.

Speaking of taxpayers' money, I've also read recently about FairTax (www.fairtax.org). Coming from Texas, I understand how an economy can be boosted by the lack of an income tax. We've had things far better in this part of the country in recent years, and I believe that has something to do with our lack of an income tax. It is a simpler tax system to implement, and encourages businesses to grow. The research that has gone into this proposal is amazing, and it addresses all the concerns I had about such a drastic change. We need to start growing this economy, and putting money back into taxpayers and investors hands is a great start, but it also brings the added bonus of making America more attractive for businesses to come here -- bringing jobs back home. This is all in a plan that keeps the same level of government funding. Please consider this plan as a way to help the United States of America compete in a global economy.

Building a Better Light Bulb

2008-08-03T08:38:00.000-05:00

I just read about an interesting new technology for light bulbs, being developed by a company out of Seattle.

Vu1 has developed a new technology called ESL - Electron Stimulated Luminescence. Essentially, they are claiming to have developed a light bulb that has all the qualities I care about as a consumer.

Perfect light quality
Instant-on
Fully dimmable
As efficient as CFLs, if not better
No Mercury
The same cost as current dimmable CFLs

I can't wait to get my hands on one to try it out. I recently tried one of the dimmable CFLs in my office, only to be sorely disappointed because it only was able to dim about 10%... still leaving me with 90% of the light. Hopefully, these new bulbs will be just what I need for spotlight replacements.

Beware the Logic of Congress

2008-07-24T08:06:00.000-05:00

So, we all know inflation is kicking us right now... I'll have to write another post to dig into that, but let's just take that as fact here. Inflation is caused by a basic devaluing of currency. What gives our currency value? The U.S. Government.

So, when the U.S. Government wants to back our currency with mortgage securities, you just have to wonder -- are they paying attention?

via Housing Bill

Proof the Europeans Get Better Cars

2008-05-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

This is proof to me that Ford builds better cars abroad: Ford Kuga.

Can someone tell me why we will have to wait/beg to get the next generation Escape to be this?

It does at least look like they will bring it here.

The Story of Stuff

2008-04-18T14:40:00.000-05:00

This is an amazing story of the modern consumer industrial system. Very entertaining. And don't forget, Earth Day is April 22nd.

Here's a teaser:

Will Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen Use Be Considered Doping?

2008-04-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

A study by the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University seems to indicate that taking ibuprofen (Advil) or acetaminophen (Tylenol)for regular weight lifters increases muscle mass and strength, when compared to a control group.

Is this to be the new doping scandal in professional sports, or perhaps the upcoming Olympics?

See more about the study at Scientific American.

Change Congress

2008-04-08T16:08:00.000-05:00

This is a fresh idea. Larry Lessig is spearheading this movement to change the way our government works. The general idea is to remove the influence of money on legislators, so that they can focus more on representing the people.

See more at change-congress.org

Recession (e.g. We're Not in One)

2008-04-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

Recession... what does that mean? According to Wikipedia it means:

...a recession is a decline in a country's real gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year.

Wikipedia further references the National Bureau of Economic Research's Recession Dating Procedure:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.

Hmmm... How does an amateur economist measure this? I'm going to pick GDP for starters, because that's easier to find. I like the NBER's definition, though, as it clarifies "real economic growth" into the specifics of income, employment, production, and retail.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes a bunch of statistics about the GDP, so I'm going to start there. Since the NBER dates the end of the last recession in November of 2001, I'm going to start with the quarterly GDP from Q42001 to present to see how our economy is really doing. I've prepared a chart with the BEA's data that shows the percentage change in US GDP, adjusted for inflation.

Notice how the chart never dips below zero? That means we haven't even had a quarter where the GDP didn't grow, let alone two of them in a row. That doesn't mean that growth isn't low, just not negative. The GDP in the 4th quarter of 2007 only grew 0.6%. Such swings are necessary to a healthy economy, though... look at what happened in 2003 after the GDP growth dipped lower than what we just had (0.2%).

The BEA is full of useful data, but it looks like it takes awhile to compile, so I'm not sure how real-time you can get with it. I'm going to have to start paying attention to where the news get their information... it looks like they'd be reporting on past events if they are taking this data when it is released -- the 4Q2007 results were reported almost a whole quarter after it ended, on March 27th.

This data is adjusted for inflation, and I wonder now how this would look compared to what actions the Fed takes with monetary policy. Perhaps I'll dig into that and tackle that next.

Learning Economic Theories

2008-03-26T23:08:00.001-05:00

Already a couple of days in, and I'm learning that there is a lot more to learn. I've been focusing on the article of The Great Depression in Wikipedia to kind of give me an overview. This also is a big area that economists have spent a lot of time researching.

The article also tries to educate on the various theories of economics such as Keynesian, Classical, and Neoclassical. These are all academically created theories, but it is interesting to see how they have influenced government policy.

The Great Depression spurred governments to make drastic changes in policy, in particular the US government. The adoption of new policies in the United States seems to have dramatically changed our culture over the past 75 years or so. This is going to be worth exploring further for me, but I'll try to highlight a few points here.

Keynesian economics advocates active fiscal policy, which means the government gets involved in trying to smooth out normal business cycles in the economy. We see this in government deficit spending today during times when the economy is slowing.

Monetary policy also changed dramatically, by moving away from the gold standard in currency. Essentially, we moved to a system where a 'dollar' is measured on it's own and not in relation to gold. This allows the government to control what the value of a dollar is. I have a lot more to read here, but we essentially see this today with the Federal Reserve when they change their interest rates.

Clearly, I have a lot more to read to get a grasp on this stuff. I remember a bit of it from high school history, but just a bit. These are just the basics that I'll have to build on, so I'm not going to be able to jump into big stuff right away. I'm looking at the theories right now, but I think I'd like to tackle the topic of Debt first -- and understand how it's used today, and how that has changed over the years.

Economics

2008-03-24T21:59:00.001-05:00

All the hubbub about the economy lately has reignited my interest in economics. I'm probably paying too close attention in an election year, but the media keeps yammering on and my head keeps trying to make sense of everything coming my way. So, I've decided to take a foray into history and try and see if there are any correlations with current events. I'll probably be relying heavily on Wikipedia for this endeavor, but I may bring in a few other sources as I have time. Here's a rough outline of what I'd like to look at over the next few weeks:

Current Trends and Policy
- Consumer Debt
- Government Debt
- Government Budgets
- Trade Deficit
- Immigration / Outsourcing / Non-Immigrant Work Visas
- Effect of an Election on the Economy
Past Causes of Economic Downturn (including the Great Depression)
- Debt
- Inequality of Wealth and Income
- Business
- Deficit spending
- Trade decline
- US Federal Reserve
Causes and Effects of Inflation

The goal of all of this is to connect the dots, envision what could happen today, and what to do about it. Ambitious, I know, but at the very least I'll be clearing the cobwebs out of those old high school history and economics knowledge.

Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-03-06T10:07:00.000-06:00

I recently just finished this book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which I found very interesting, so I had to share it.

One passage in the book just stood out to me, about Polyface Farms, and how they have created a farm that produces food by allowing the animals to do what they do best, yet they all work in a symphony that creates a better environment for everyone. Food production is not a zero-sum game. I found a video, up on TED, where the author goes through this exact passage.

This pastoral view of the world reminds me of my preferred view of the future, which I derived from a poster I saw in the fourth grade. If I ever find a picture of that poster, I'll put that up here...

Also, the passage above with the chickens reminds me of some friends and their stories of chickens in their garden.

What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up?

2008-01-13T22:07:00.000-06:00

I come back to this question, now and again, when things are tough; when I find that I want to break out of the mold that I'm in, and head in a different direction. Springing from all the latest MacWorld speculation, I re-read an old posting on Daring Fireball about Apple's culture.

[W]hat gets chalked up as devotion to/obsession with Apple is, in fact, devotion to/obsession with great design, and there’s an utter dearth of rival PC or handheld gadget makers that value design as Apple does. The last time I was truly interested in an operating system that wasn’t from Apple was BeOS, and that was over 10 years ago...

[M]any ... companies see Apple’s success this decade as an aberration — that the Apple bubble will soon pop and mediocre jumbles will return to the top of the technology heap. But what if it’s the other way around, and the aberration was Apple’s tepid success in the 1990s?

I sure hope that many more companies follow the Apple path. It's that kind of attention to detail that I want to see out of products, and what I like to put into my work. Being in an environment where others don't value going that extra mile is usually what makes things tough for me. That's when I start asking the question again.

Electoral Compass

2008-01-02T22:20:00.000-06:00

Here's an interesting site. It gives you a survey, and plots your opinion against the other presidential candidates out there.

No wonder I'm having a hard time with this -- I'm nearly exactly in the middle between all the candidates, with no others sharing the same views. Ah... the compromises one must make to live in a republic.

End of the American Empire

2008-01-02T16:32:00.000-06:00

Deep thoughts for today, but this has been bugging me for awhile. Via Richard Florida I found this article from the Financial Times. It provides an apropos warning from the Ottoman Empire.

[T]he upshot of this debt crisis is the sale of assets and revenue streams to foreign creditors. This time, however, creditors are buying bank shares not canal shares. And the resulting shift of power is from west to east.

Disturbing, isn't it?

Money is power, and we will become indebted to foreign nations that do not share our ideals. Sooner or later that will lead to a geopolitical shift, if it hasn't already. Just like any financially responsible individual, we should be wary of who we take money from, and for what reasons. I hope we take the advice of another blog posting I read recently.

It is this generation’s task to renew the tree of liberty and keep the American experiment going – to remain true to the ideals that made America and have driven it since 1776.

Perhaps Shakespeare had it right:

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

I am glad to understand this, but sad that I feel powerless to prevent it.

iTunes Movie Rentals

2007-12-29T19:49:00.000-06:00

I see some rumors out there that I'd like to make a prediction on.

Variety is reporting that Fox and Apple are signing a deal to offer movie rentals on iTunes. Their reported price is $2-$5 per rental for a 24-hour period.

If that is all there is to the deal, then it seems destined to be lackluster. They should be aiming at the $1-per-day DVD rental market, and not the cable on-line rental market -- that's the real competition out there.

Play to win, Apple; play to win.

Personal Connections with Music

2007-12-17T21:35:00.000-06:00

Isn't it amazing when you listen to a piece of music, and subtly feel what you did in the past when listening to that same piece of music? My brain just amazes me at it's capability to do that. It's like the emotions creep in first, and then your brain nags at you to remember that time in your life.

I just dug out a couple of old pieces of music, thanks to the miracle of iTunes and that I have my entire old CD collection converted to an always on-hand digital music library. I was listening to Christmas music today, and it reminded me of a song in the movie Toys from 1992, "The Closing of the Year". Don't bother looking on iTunes for it, as that soundtrack isn't part of their collection -- the closest they have is this. It's the same song, for the most part, but by totally different singers. I had to check, but it's the same composer, Hans Zimmer. Funny to find a song from a non-so-successful movie on an operatic Christmas album - "A Gala Christmas in Vienna". Ha!

Anyway, I was thinking about this song, didn't quite know why, but after I started listening to it, I remembered what I was when first hearing it. I had lived in Texas for about 6 months at the time -- almost exactly 15 years from today. I spent a lot of time listening to CDs back then. I just love how music can shape or enhance your mood. You have to let it in, but it's such a great release. BTW, the song "Happy Worker" from Tori Amos is also on that CD is quite good as well.

Pirates of Austin

2007-10-28T20:29:00.001-05:00

Pirates
Originally uploaded by ryandobson

Our "Ghoul Bash" this year went over quite well. We were going to go for "Undead Pirates", but ran out of time for makeup. ;-) Overall, the costumes turned out quite well.

Fiest's 1234 - Creativity

2007-09-26T09:28:00.000-05:00

I'm very impressed by how this video was made. The whole video was done in a single continuous shot. Pay close attention to the beginning and ending, and you'll see how cool that is. It's all over the place now, thanks to Apple using it in the iPod Nano TV spot.

The Video

The Making of the Video

Dramatic Prairie Dog

2007-06-24T10:13:00.001-05:00

This cracks me up every time I watch it...

Music from a Tesla Coil?

2007-06-21T21:49:00.001-05:00

Now this is an Amp I'd like to plug into...

And, of course, a crash course in how to build one here.

Creative Pursuits

2007-06-21T21:34:00.001-05:00

I just got done watching the commentary track of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, and I was just reminded of how similar the creative process is. Whether you're creating a movie, music, book, or software, nearly all creative endeavors go through the same processes. They also run into similar difficulties, such as funding, or finding the right support.

It's also a terribly exhilarating experience.

95% Done

2007-05-28T22:19:00.001-05:00

For those who are keeping track on our website, I've been regularly posting our progress on the kitchen via photos. We still have some finishing touches left, but the final product isn't hard to see from here. We made it this far on Friday, and spent the weekend enjoying the fruits of our labor.

I have to say -- the $45 in under and over cabinet lighting that Alexis found at Big Lots really makes this room pop. It is also infinitely useful, and provides more light in just the right areas -- even seems to make the counter space feel bigger.

Tiling

2007-05-16T00:10:00.001-05:00

We've finally gotten to the backsplash phase of our kitchen remodel. This one has taken time to plan for, and get the right materials. Since we updated the counter tops, those had to be in place first and the last pieces of it arrived today.

When we took off the old tile, wall and all, I was a bit nervous we'd never get something back on the wall. I'm glad we did it, though. We got the chance to do some electrical work to allow for under and over cabinet lighting, which I think is going to really be nice in the kitchen.

Justin has been such a help in this. I've really been relying on him for 'how-to' advice, and it helps that he's just as picky as I am. We went through a lesson today on tiling, and he walked me through it. The tile is in place for the island now. We will probably do the rest tomorrow, and then find time later to grout and seal it.

Why I've Been So Busy

2007-04-21T22:22:00.001-05:00

The Wii proved a good distraction from blogging, however the real reason I haven't posted much here was another project going on. We're currently remodeling or kitchen. You can check our progress here.

Scored a Wii

2006-11-26T21:19:00.000-06:00

So, after a week of trying since it's launch, I was finally successful in obtaining a Nintendo Wii. I have to say, after some of the horror stories online, I was wary about waiting in line for one of these.

I got a tip last night that Best Buy (in Texas) would be running an Ad in Sunday's paper where they would guarantee a minimum of 12 per store. I left the house at 6:30am to go grab a paper to see if this was real, and it was, so I decided to drive by the nearest store to see how bad the line was. There were already 8 people in line, so I chose to stick around just in case 12 was going to be the max number (and perhaps some people could have been holding spots for others). I called my sweet wife to let her know she didn't have to get up, as she was willing to drive to another store to see if there was a better line. By now it was about a quarter until 7am. The line filled up to 12 by 7. Someone drove by and dropped off a couple of newspapers for everyone waiting to read.

Steve, the manager, came out to check on us, and let everyone know that there were enough units for each person in line at that time. He politely told us that he was not allowed to say how many they had, but would let us know when the line size grew past that number. My wife dropped by at 8am with Starbucks, and kept me going. I had already read the paper, so I passed it off to her (although there were no coupons in this issue). Steve came out a couple of times more, and a little before 9am let the people in the line over number 27 know that there were not enough units for people past that point, unless someone in front dropped out.

Just before 10am, Steve came by one final time and started passing out tickets, and explaining to everyone how the process would work. He took the people at the back of the line, and anyone else who wasn't purchasing a Wii and moved them to the front, so they could enter the store uninhibited. We all walked in line and picked up any games that we wanted, and proceeded to Customer Service to trade in our ticket for a Wii.

Overall, it was a very pleasant and orderly process. Thanks, Steve!

I'll update later, but the system is already a hit with Alexis -- Wii Sports is cool, and so is Excite Truck.

Keep the Hardware Coming

2006-09-09T07:18:00.000-05:00

If you are a victim of Moore's law you are in hardware; if you are a beneficiary of Moore's law you are in software.

How to tell a hardware from a software person

I'm definitely a software person.

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

2006-09-04T07:32:00.000-05:00

Steve Irwin was tragically killed by a stingray yesterday. Although we didn't get to meet him during our stay in Australia this year, his presence was felt at Australia Zoo. This is a big loss for them. Our prayers go out to his family.

Read more at: Steve Irwin Killed
and Witnesses tell of freak death

OSCON 2006 - Morning of Day 1

2006-07-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

I was just greeted with the morning site of Mt. Hood from my hotel window in Portland, Oregon this morning. I'm looking forward to the week of the conference here. Day 1, I'm signed up for JavaScript Boot Camp and The Rails Guidebook. It should be fun.

Maybe I'll venture out on the MAX later this evening and pretend like I know how to get around in a big city. Austin is slated to add light rail to the options of transportation around 2008, so it will be interesting to see how it works here.

In the meantime, I need to find a MiniUSB to USB adapter so I can upload pictures from my camera...

Metaprogramming

2006-07-07T06:42:00.000-05:00

I went to an interesting talk last night by Dave Thomas, sponsored by Austin on Rails. Dave is the author of several interesting Ruby and Rails books. Cool stuff. I am just getting into Rails, and this talk covered some of the interesting features of Ruby that make all that magic work. I'm still learning Ruby, so I don't quite feel qualified in calling myself a Ruby Programmer yet, but maybe someday...

At the giveaway, my name was pulled and I got a free copy of Bruce Tate's From Java to Ruby: Things Every Manager Should Know. Cool beans.

Shuffle Recovers from 'Lights of Death'

2006-07-06T08:14:00.000-05:00

Those of you that know me, know that I've been limping along iPod-less for a little over three weeks now. My 512MB iPod Shuffle had been experiencing the green-orange Lights of Death.

It would not play, and no computer I had access to would recognize it either as an iPod or a thumb-drive. I had even taken it to the local Apple store for a Genius to look at, and had no luck there.

The troubling thing to me was the method of failure... it seemed more like a firmware issue, and not a component failure. I'm not so sure now. The day it died I had hooked it up to my work computer's docking station for an emergency charge. It worked fine after that, on the car ride home. Then, when I went to plug it into my Mac, it wouldn't show up. Is there some kind of weird overcharging issue?

My plan was to let the battery drain, and see if I could trigger some other kind of reset. Wishful thinking, since flash memory doesn't erase that way.

Over the long weekend, I noticed that a new iTunes came out, and a new iPod Updater. I had tried the previous iPod Updater, but since I couldn't get the iPod to show up in the Mac, it couldn't update it. I downloaded this new updater, and iTunes. I fiddled with my Shuffle a bit, and it still had the Lights of Death... so I wasn't very hopeful when I plugged it in. I was surprised when iTunes gave me the message, "There is new firmware for your iPod, would you like to update now?" Heck, yeah!

So, I just finished a bike ride with my resurrected Shuffle, and things are much better.

Update: Apple releases utility to reset the 1G iPod Shuffle. See: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ipodshuffleresetutility10formac.html.

176-Year-Old Tortoise Named Harriet Passes On

2006-06-27T12:45:00.000-05:00

One of the coolest things we did in Australia this year, was to visit Australia Zoo. While we were there, we met Harriet, who was just a magnificent animal. It was hard to believe that a living tortoise was around at the time of Sir Charles Darwin. Talk about a connection to the past!

I was very sad to hear of her passing today.

Is Pepsi Fine? - No

2006-06-26T21:03:00.000-05:00

Someone else is noticing the Pepsi trend. I much prefer Coke, but I to am finding it harder to get at restaurants. I think Pepsi is gaining in marketshare, due to some of Coke's pricing terms. I asked one of our local mom-and-pop shops about a year ago why he had to charge so much for a half-liter bottle of Coke. He said he was being charged the same rate that than the vending machine in the same building charged for the 20-ounce bottle, and he still had to add sales tax to it. He couldn't do enough volume to justify the business, so he had to switch to the half-liter bottle to keep the overall price down.

Inspired by www.jonsthoughtsonevery...

iTunes Movie Store Leaks?

2006-06-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

You just have to wonder how these things leak out. The pricing negotiations on iTunes music items always seem to leak, and show that Steve is fighting for the consumer . I have to wonder about that. It seems awfully convenient for these stories to leak out in favor of Apple.

I'm not one for conspiracy theorys, but Apple does know how to work the media. They have proven, time and again, that the can construct a consistent message and deliver it through mass media in a very efficient manner -- regardless of what story market share numbers tell. They provide a compelling story.

So, if you connect those two thoughts together, you come up with an interesting idea. Apple could be manipulating the media to increase their leverage on content providers during license negotiation, but I have no proof of this. "Manipulating" may be a strong word, but I think it still applies.

Keep in mind that any form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) represents a tightening of control over media, regardless of the terms and pricing model. Apple has so far presented fairly reasonable terms, but there isn't anything to prevent them from further restricting them.

Probably what worries me most about DRM is its durability. Will it last? Digital media could last a long time, if you still have the ability to access it in the future. Think about that for a minute, then think about trying to play an 8-track tape today. The difference is you don't need a physical player for most digital media -- just a physical way to transport the media. Obsolete file formats abound -- simply because we don't have a way to read the format anymore. DRM under the control of a single company represents a lot of faith in that company to allow further access to that file in the future.

Read more at Variety.com - Friend or foe?

Update: Need I say more about Apple and media? At last count there were 117 articles linked to the Variety story on Google News.

Cars

2006-06-17T06:29:00.000-05:00

Went to see Cars last night. I am still surprised at how well the folks at Pixar can put together a movie. They have such an amazing sense of craft, that it's easy to forget you are watching an animation. You also get the sense that they genuinely took interest in Route 66 and the age of driving. It is just such a pleasure to witness this craftsmanship at work.

2006-06-09T07:36:00.000-05:00

What if Darth was a Little More Normal?
Audio dubbed from James Earl Jones' other movies... ROFL!

2006-06-09T07:28:00.000-05:00

Darth Vader After the Death Star Blew Up
This cracked me up!

New Site Design is Up

2006-05-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Over at the home page, I've put up the new design. I decided to try out iWeb for this round, since it came with the latest iLife that I bought for the video I'm editing of our Australia / New Zealand trip.

Once I got accustomed to the interface, I actually liked it. Normally, I like hand-coding my HTML, but iWeb has some really excellent tools for graphics in it. It's like a poor-man's Dreamweaver, I guess. I was able to mask, rotate, resize, and position different photos within the page. The Travel main page is where I tried most of this out, building on the template Apple supplied. It was so easy, I plan on extending this page in the future.

The only part that really annoys me with iWeb so far, is the Navigation Menu. There is no way to customize what is included in that menu. You can choose to include pages or not, but not really add any links to it. I may need to explain what I'm trying to do to clarify this.

iWeb has the concept of a site where you group all of your pages together. You can edit any number of sites, and have them all publish to .Mac under different directories. So, a site called Main is published under /iWeb/Main/Main.html. This is great, because I wanted to have certain sub sites that were just related pages -- like the Travel page. The problem with this implementation was that I could not use the navigation menu to link back to the Main site, or have the Travel site listed from the Main site's navigation menu.

There also seems to be no customization you can do to the Navigation menu, aside from changing the header height to allow it to be under some other page header. It is not positionable like other elements on the page, and you can't select it to change any of the style in it. It's an on or off element per page. Considering how customizable the graphics and text fields were, this is a bit jarring.

Overall, it was quick and easy to use, and I like the program. I still might try out some other site design software, but this is a definite improvement from the old .Mac homepage.

New Apple 'Get a Mac' Ads

2006-05-01T23:32:00.000-05:00

These are priceless. They pretty much sum up all the little points that I tell people, but with such better writing. Six, in total, Viruses, Restarting, Better, iLife, Network, and WSJ. http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Money and Prestige

2006-04-25T20:01:00.000-05:00

How do you find good leaders? I was just watching last week's episode of "The West Wing", and it triggered an essay that I had read. A section of Paul Graham's How to Do What You Love talks about Money and Prestige.

Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you'd like to like. ... The other big force leading people astray is money. ... The danger is when money is combined with prestige.

Now, take this, and apply it to executive compensation. There is a lot of money being thrown around in that area. I am not saying it is wrong, but it certainly isn't going to help find the right people for the job. It will attract a whole mess of ambitious people, though. For middle executives, this may not be a problem. For a top position, do you want to attract the most ambitious people? This doesn't always equate to good leadership. You really need to dig into a person's character to find that. Some of the best leader's I've known, did it naturally and sometimes even reluctantly. That being said... I still have no idea how to attract good leaders.

Boot Camp

2006-04-13T02:51:00.000-05:00

For all the people out there speculating on when Apple is going to allow Windows apps too run natively inside Mac OS X, this is for you: OS/2 - A better Windows than Windows. .

Does no one remember this? Seriously, one of the big killers of OS/2 was that it's best apps were all Windows apps. I see Boot Camp as just an Apple sanctioned boot loader that won't stomp on OS X. People were doing it anyway, so why not sell a few more boxes?

It's nice to think of all the grand virtulization technologies, but I really don't find them that interesting. It is a new label on an otherwise old technology. All this hype so that you can run multiple virtual computers on a single box. Why the hype? Because they are mostly running an OS that needs some kind of backup OS to take over for it. It's a good robust solution, but let's not forget why it is there. It's taking up the slack for reliability from the OS. It happens to work a lot better now that we have all these CPUs to throw at it, but it's still a fairly old idea.

Inspired by www.theappleblog.com/20...

Airport Screening

2006-03-23T13:04:00.000-06:00

I think this is the best description of airport security yet. Most people just don't grasp the real purpose of it.

Remember the point of passenger screening. We're not trying to catch the clever, organized, well-funded terrorists. We're trying to catch the amateurs and the incompetent. We're trying to catch the unstable. We're trying to catch the copycats. These are all legitimate threats, and we're smart to defend against them. Against the professionals, we're just trying to add enough uncertainty into the system that they'll choose other targets instead.

Daring Fireball: Familiarity Breeds a User Base

2006-03-06T22:44:00.000-06:00

Also known as inertia. The reason for a lot of Windows users not willing to switch to a Mac is just a lack of familiarity to it.

I went through this switch almost five years ago. I had used a PC, in some form or another, for about 8 years at that point. I was reluctant to leave the comfort of commodity hardware, but I had just reached the point where I was sick of having to fix things on my computer. My day-job requires a lot of tinkering, and I just wanted a computer that I could work with and rely on without all that extra tinkering.

Probably the biggest reason, though, for the switch, was that I was never really ingrained into the Windows world. My first computer was a Coleco Adam, which taught me a lot about BASIC. My next computer, which I fell in love with, was a Commodore Amiga 500. That computer was just so far ahead of it's time... It was truly a computer for artists, and I still really identify with that. I learned so much on that computer that it's ridiculous. I entered the wider world with BBSes, I learned graphics animation, photo editing, music composition, video game creation, and C programming.

The first PC I bought (a Dell) actually started with OS/2 on it. This was pre-Windows 95, but I tried to keep that thing running for awhile. After eventually moving to Windows 95, I tried BeOS for awhile. That OS had some promise, but just no market share. The file system was brilliant. I then experimented with Linux for awhile, but I couldn't get much past that. There was just too much to tweak with, and I ended up not getting anything else done.

Shortly after OS X 10.0 was released, I took the plunge with an iBook. Now, 5 years later, I don't want to go anywhere else. Things on the Mac just get out of the way and let you get to the work you want to do... I can't explain it much better than that.

To sum it up, I didn't have a lot of inertia, so it was never much of a pain for me. I think change is good, and with computers, you need to be prepared to jump ship whenever a better ship comes along. This is why open data formats are so important. Sink or Swim, baby.

Inspired by daringfireball.net/2006...

Apple SVP Schiller: Co. Isn't 'Trying to Replace TiVo' || The Mac Observer

2006-03-02T16:48:00.000-06:00

At least not yet, anyway. I keep wondering why people are all speculating about a new "Airport Express" that will also have a "Front Row" like app embedded in it. It's a great idea, and the addition of Bonjour to the software will make this much easier to implement, as you're just going to be pulling off media from other computers on your network. The price isn't right, yet, for a Mac Mini to be this device, and it just does more than necessary for a media box.

Incorporating Front Row into an "Airport Express" may prove more difficult, as that device just isn't a computer. I would look for this functionality to come from a totally new device, probably after the Intel transition is complete. Another intriguing option would be to push the new wireless networking standard (802.11n) to with a new device. There is much more bandwidth with this protocol, and would be better suited to video. Perhaps that would fit into a larger base-station device, and not an 'Express'.

PaulStamatiou.com » Intel Mac Mini is Upgradable

2006-03-02T16:40:00.000-06:00

This is exciting news. With the new pictures surfacing of the Mac Mini's internals, it looks like they are using socket-based processors. This makes it fairly easy to upgrade, if there aren't any other changes between the base and upgraded models.

I am having flashbacks to the old days, when I used to build my own PC, before I went Mac. There also used to be some jumpers you'd have to set, and perhaps a BIOS setting. I have no idea how this works in a modern Intel system, with EFI. Perhaps it is all handled for you now, and the hardware just adapts to the new chip.

Why Peak Oil is Probably About Now

2006-03-02T07:14:00.000-06:00

This article is for all those people who keep asking why the price of gas isn't going down. It is a good summary of oil production levels. Now, keep in mind that as production stays flat, demand certainly isn't going down. Supply < Demand = Higher Prices.

In Defense of Apple's Announcments - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

2006-03-01T22:17:00.000-06:00

Now these guys have it. The big thing about all the new Macs is how little the change looks on the outside of the box.

Apple has so far transitioned half of it's product lines into a completely new chip architecture, and no one is batting an eye. In fact, people are clammoring, "Is that all ?"

They are pulling this off by only introducing minor external changes, and just adding a sprinkling of new features -- making it look like a small upgrade. These new boxes are anything but a small upgrade.

By the time they are done with this transition, they have paved the way to allow another revision of hardware fairly quickly, and can introduce new physical designs to increase demand. The whole key to this chip swap is to reassure everyone on how little has changed, and to not rock the boat just yet. Rock the boat later, when you don't have to explain to everyone how stable the product lines are.

China gives itself its own top-level domains

2006-03-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

The golden age of the Internet is about to end. In this dream that is now coming to and end, there was no confusion about how to resolve DNS addresses. It was a simple, fairly straightforward process. Once this is broken, and certain rules are no longer followed, we may all need to purchase update 'maps' to the information superhighway at regular intervals. Certain roads may also be closed occasionally, and on the authority of whoever controls them.

YouTube - Microsoft iPod Packaging Parody

2006-02-28T20:55:00.000-06:00

This just shows what is wrong with most computer packaging out there, and how more isn't always better.

Watch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Update

Looks like Microsoft commissioned the video for a little internal education. See http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/25957

Writers Block Live » Blog Archive » The HD Boycott Begins Now

2006-02-24T21:12:00.000-06:00

It sure looks like I'm going to enjoy a lot more free time in the future, because I won't be able afford to own a lot of media

Why formats like RSS 2.0 work

2006-02-23T03:53:00.000-06:00

It's really nice to see the acknowledgement of how important a stable platform is for development. I think a lot of new developers miss that point, in their quest to bend the computer to their will. Data formats, like RSS, are such a crucial thing to keep stable. A clear evolution path helps keep the temptation to reinvent the wheel at bay.

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

2006-02-22T05:04:00.000-06:00

Speaking of marketing prowess, I just read this article about DeBeers and the history of diamond marketing. Some of the advertising may seem a bit morally questionable, but you can't argue that this kind of stuff doesn't still happen today.

‘Fun New Products’ Coming From Apple

2006-02-22T04:21:00.000-06:00

The rumor mills are working overtime to speculate on the latest announced Apple event. You just have to admire how a company can keep people in anticipatation like this, and crank up the buzz. Apple is a marketing machine.

My two cents: I just can't get out of my head how much fun Steve had demoing PhotoBooth when that was first introduced.

PunxsutawneyPhil.com

2006-02-02T06:34:00.000-06:00

Six more weeks of "mild" winter!

Newsvine - Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Capitol

2006-02-02T05:47:00.000-06:00

Now, I'm usually one to tell people to "move on", for things like this, but if this article is accurate, I am gravely concerned for this country.

To summarize, Cindy Sheehan, known anti-war activist, was arrested at the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan on it. Police warned her that it would not be allowed. WTF? That seems like a reasonably peaceful demonstration to me. Tread lightly, folks, we still have almost two full years left.

AT&T chief says that people are only paying for half the Internet

2006-01-31T20:59:00.000-06:00

This article is clearly showing how AT&T is becoming more and more a dinosaur. They just don't get it, do they? We are talking about a global network, not just some leased lines here.I say it's time for a change. There needs to be more competition in this space. Right now, in the US, at least, most people have about two broadband choices -- cable or DSL. The two are competing, but neither will really allow others access to their endpoints -- at least not in a meaningful, price-competitive way.

It's a shame that my electric bill can be more competitive than my broadband Internet access.

bynkii.com: They'll never know what hit them

2006-01-25T22:01:00.000-06:00

I agree. The Disney board is about to get a big dose of RDF.

Outsourcing World

2006-01-22T16:07:00.000-06:00

This was an interesting podcast talking about the business behind outsourcing. For all the talk about how efficient it is to outsource "information workers", when the reporter is point blank asked if outsourcing his job would be effective, he dodges around and comes to the conclusion that "no it wouldn't be effective, because reporters create things." That is paraphrasing a bit, but it was the general idea put across.

So, when we are talking about outsourcing engineering jobs, what exactly do engineers do again? Oh, yeah, they create things...

deeje.com/musings: MacBook Pro is a marketing experiment?

2006-01-12T19:55:00.000-06:00

This is a very insightful blog posting about Apple new MacBook Pro. Apple is using this product to test the waters. They want to know exactly how to position their new products when they are all out there.

HD TiVo Series 3 @ CES | PVRblog

2006-01-05T22:40:00.000-06:00

Woo hoo!  Finally!  This looks like it is everything I was hoping for.

"Analog hole" legislation introduced

2005-12-18T21:32:00.000-06:00

This is really getting out of hand. It is going to get to the point where we won't be able to listen to or watch anything at any time without paying something. And to blame piracy, which will not be affected at all by this legislation, is just ridiculous. This kind of legislation is really going to limit the growth of technology. I am tired of these companies out there protecting their old business models, and trying to legislate new business models without letting the market decide. This is not what this country is supposed to be about. Read more at arstechnica.com/news.ar...

Zeroconf and Firefox

2005-12-15T23:20:00.000-06:00

Has anyone done an extension for Firefox that implements Zeroconf? I'm looking for a cross-platform extension that uses Zeroconf (a.k.a. Bonjour) to discover local services. I found one random link on a message board that is over a year old, but it doesn't work the Firefox 1.5, and it didn't look like it was quite finished anyway.

Mayor Phil

2005-12-05T22:06:00.000-06:00

Mayor Phil
Originally uploaded by ryandobson.

Punxsutawney has recently added these colorful little statues around town in various stops. Alexis and I took some time out of the Thanksgiving break to try and snap as many photos as possible of them. We managed to capture 15. I believe we missed at least one of them, though, after talking with my aunt, there is a "Builder Phil" near the TrueValue hardware store.

My "Lost" Alter Ego is Hurley

2005-11-14T20:01:00.000-06:00

I scored as Hurley. I'm Hurley! A big fan of food, fun, a person everybody can relate to and everybody likes. Who is your "Lost" alter ego?

Information Is Getting (To Me) Faster

2005-11-10T21:25:00.000-06:00

I've found that the flow of new information is getting faster. Since I started using NetNewsWire, there has been a steady uptick in my ratio of information found versus time spent finding it. I used to spend a lot of time surfing the web looking at various news sites looking for interesting things. Now, well over a year after I started using NetNewsWire, it's all coming to me. Now, RSS alone hasn't accounted for all of this. This seems old-hat to many people out there, but we are still in the early-adopter part of the curve. I recently added feeds from digg to my subscription list, and it has only helped things out. For those who don't know, digg is like Slashdot on steriods. What the editors and moderators on Slashdot do that takes a day or more is done by the collective power of the users at digg.com in a few minutes. I often see information on digg.com a day or two before it makes it to Slashdot. Information flows faster. Does anyone remember the old television commercials from AT&T with the dog in the computer who would go fetch the news? It was an idea back then that never quite materialized. With the ability to do tag searches on news feeds, we are almost getting to the point where this is feasable. Perhaps it is already there in some people's minds, but I'm setting my standards a little bit higher. I just love the magic of technology. I'm anxious to see how Newsvine turns out.

Konditorei

2005-11-06T22:31:00.000-06:00

I read this little book, by Randy Komisar, called The Monk and the Riddle. In this book, there is this little coffee shop where some of the scenes take place. I just couldn't help but take a trip there, and see it for myself. I have to say that it was nothing like I'd expected. I did, however, have a very nice white chocolate mocha latte there, though.

One Infinite Loop

2005-11-06T22:29:00.000-06:00

What Apple fan couldn't resist a little side trip while visiting Silicon Valley?