Sunday, January 29, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
Movie Review: Brothers Grimm
Terry Gilliam presents a fantastic vision of the Brothers Grimm as a pair of con men who are finally faced with justice and sent to confront a truly fantastic situation where they truly have to become heroes. Gilliam manages to sneak in images of Hansel & Greta, the Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, amongst others, but those stories while evoking the stories of the original Grimm brothers aren't central to the plot.
It being a Gilliam movie, I kept waiting for the horror or the twist, but it never happened. It truly is the only Gilliam movie I've seen that actually turns out to be what it claims to be, a straight-forward tale told competently. Unfortunately, we've expected more than simply competence from Gilliam, so it was a bit of a let-down.
It being a Gilliam movie, I kept waiting for the horror or the twist, but it never happened. It truly is the only Gilliam movie I've seen that actually turns out to be what it claims to be, a straight-forward tale told competently. Unfortunately, we've expected more than simply competence from Gilliam, so it was a bit of a let-down.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
My other 20% project
Unlike Prophit, gtags will never make it into the New York Times. It is pretty cool to get onto the front page of code.google.com, though. But this is the project I spend most of my 20% time on, and we now have a full time intern working on it as well. There are a lot of obvious refinements possible, but I wanted to get it out there even in this rather raw form to see if there's any uptake at all in the open source community.
I don't think gtags is useful until you have about a million or so lines of source code (though I'd love to find out if I'm wrong!). But if your project has that much code and isn't susceptible to IDEs (C++/C code typically has this property), then I think that having something like gtags around can be a great help. I certainly wrote this tool when I was learning my way around the google sourcebase, and it was valuable enough for other engineers to start using it as well. "Next bench" projects are some of the more gratifying projects you can do, because your customers are other engineers, and those are people you work with every day!
Prospective interns: I've already filled the summer 2006 position, but if you're interested in an internship/co-op with Google in the fall or even winter, and would like to work on gtags, feel free to let the recruiter (or me) know!
I don't think gtags is useful until you have about a million or so lines of source code (though I'd love to find out if I'm wrong!). But if your project has that much code and isn't susceptible to IDEs (C++/C code typically has this property), then I think that having something like gtags around can be a great help. I certainly wrote this tool when I was learning my way around the google sourcebase, and it was valuable enough for other engineers to start using it as well. "Next bench" projects are some of the more gratifying projects you can do, because your customers are other engineers, and those are people you work with every day!
Prospective interns: I've already filled the summer 2006 position, but if you're interested in an internship/co-op with Google in the fall or even winter, and would like to work on gtags, feel free to let the recruiter (or me) know!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
A funny post on the Bush presidency
The Bush presidency as a text adventure game. He left out all the tax shenanigans that Bush did, but it's still hilariously funny!
Rivendell Social Ride #1
Lisa & I did 55 miles or so of riding today with the "Rivendell Social" down in San Juan Bautista. Well, the terrain was so ridiculously tandem friendly that we didn't stay social for long and just barrelled along with a couple of other singles and a trike taunting us. I think our average speed ended up being about 15mph, which is unusually good for us. My altimeter read only 2400' of climbing, so that accounts for it, along with the nice tailwind we got on the flat parts. The weather was warm and sunny, and of course getting to see Grant Petersen is great!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Winning the Green Card Lottery
The latest New Yorker has a great article about a couple from Peru who won the Green Card lottery and then moved to the US where the man became a food service worker despite knowing no English and being a mining engineer in Peru (a sought after position on top of the food chain). The reason: the children. It's a stark reminder that despite all the wage compression at the bottom 95% of the U.S., this country is still very much seen as the land of opportunity for most of the rest of the world, if not for the poor immigrants who show up with next to nothing, then (at least in perception) in the hopes that their children will have a better life here than in the home country.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Review: Serenity
Lots of folks have reviewed the movie Serenity, many with more eloquence, passiong, and credibility than I would have. It's a great movie, and if you haven't seen it, you should. I'll review the DVD extras. The crown jewel, of course, is Joss Whedon's sardonic commentary on the movie itself. It's not very special, but he does explain why certain scenes were cut and saved as DVD extras, and how the lighting is done, which is great if you're a photography buff (which I am).
The "making of" features and the various other features round it out to make it complete for fans of the movie. Unfortunately, it's still not enough to get me to buy it. (Then again, watching firefly the series, as good as it was, wasn't enough to get me to buy the DVD set either)
The "making of" features and the various other features round it out to make it complete for fans of the movie. Unfortunately, it's still not enough to get me to buy it. (Then again, watching firefly the series, as good as it was, wasn't enough to get me to buy the DVD set either)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
New Cell Phone
I switched cell phones, cell service providers, and cell phone #. If you're a friend and need my new cell #, send me e-mail and I'll give you my new phone #.
Review: Bend it like Beckham
This is not a deep movie. It's a comedy hybrid of the inspirational sports movie and the cultural comedy. Set in Britain, the story is of a soccer mad high schooler (Jessie) about to graduate who is sported by a local member of the women's soccer team (Jules). Since her (Indian) parents don't approve, Jessie plays with Jules' team without their knowledge, lying about having a summer job. What follows is a series of misunderstandings, betrayals, followed by the film's inspirational message driven home with all the subtlety of a soccer ball headed into the net.
That said, I liked the film quite a bit. Soccer to me is still the sport I grew up with (despite never being any good at it), and is to me a far more beautiful game than American football. The game flows with an intensity and grace that makes top level play enjoyable to watch. And of course, in particular, the USA dominates women's soccer despite a sporting culture that doesn't comprehend the off-side rule (hilariously explained during the movie by Jules' dad as an aside) or the concept that a sport might exist without advertising breaks. That makes the entire film and its premise (that being given a soccer scholarship to Santa Clara University would be a great thing to have) somewhat believeable.
The cultural comedy aspect is enjoyable and very funny, even to Lisa who is not as much of a fan of Indian food as I am. So two thumbs up. This is a delightful film to watch when you're down with a cold and your brain isn't working (which was Lisa's state of mind when watching it), or when you're just in the mood for something light. The message is heavy handed but fits its genre. Just don't expect to come away from the movie with a good understanding of the off-side rule.
That said, I liked the film quite a bit. Soccer to me is still the sport I grew up with (despite never being any good at it), and is to me a far more beautiful game than American football. The game flows with an intensity and grace that makes top level play enjoyable to watch. And of course, in particular, the USA dominates women's soccer despite a sporting culture that doesn't comprehend the off-side rule (hilariously explained during the movie by Jules' dad as an aside) or the concept that a sport might exist without advertising breaks. That makes the entire film and its premise (that being given a soccer scholarship to Santa Clara University would be a great thing to have) somewhat believeable.
The cultural comedy aspect is enjoyable and very funny, even to Lisa who is not as much of a fan of Indian food as I am. So two thumbs up. This is a delightful film to watch when you're down with a cold and your brain isn't working (which was Lisa's state of mind when watching it), or when you're just in the mood for something light. The message is heavy handed but fits its genre. Just don't expect to come away from the movie with a good understanding of the off-side rule.
Republicans are Evil: Part V
This isn't surprising, considering that the administration designed its Medicare plan to serve its ideological agenda--privatizing government services and enriching special interests like the insurance and pharmaceutical industries--rather than senior citizens. The original Medicare law reflects a rather different tradition: the New Deal. Its architects believed that protecting people from economic and medical risk was a job that only a robust and, yes, big government could do properly. Of course, that's a pretty unfashionable idea nowadays. But that hardly makes it wrong.
Of course, this nation is only getting what it deserves. We were too stupid to see through the insurance company/drug company "hilary-care" scare in the 1990s, so now we get the privatized expensive inefficient care that Republicans want you to have. If you're not wealthy, voting Republican is a very dumb thing to do. In the long run, perhaps, as more Americans lose health insurance, maybe we'll vote in a sensible government. But it might take a lot pain and suffering to do so. (Think about it, Enron didn't get the Bush administration evicted)
Of course, this nation is only getting what it deserves. We were too stupid to see through the insurance company/drug company "hilary-care" scare in the 1990s, so now we get the privatized expensive inefficient care that Republicans want you to have. If you're not wealthy, voting Republican is a very dumb thing to do. In the long run, perhaps, as more Americans lose health insurance, maybe we'll vote in a sensible government. But it might take a lot pain and suffering to do so. (Think about it, Enron didn't get the Bush administration evicted)
Monday, January 16, 2006
Yajie gets her boots wet
I'd never done the Saratoga loop hike before --- I've always just mountain biked it, but in winter part of the trails are closed to mountain bikes, so I got Shyam & Yajie to hike it with me. The river is wide (but mosquito free because it was quite cold), and the hike back up on Charcoal Road is just as hard as I remember biking it. (This was the easier of the two stream crossings --- at the other stream crossing, I was too busy taking off my shoes, tossing them across the stream, and then wading in the cold river to take any pictures)
Review: Perfectly Legal, David Cay Johnston
I first read this book 2 years ago. Ever since discovering that the Santa Clara County Library's electronic catalog, I've stopped buying most of the books, but when Scarlet pointed me at a recent New York Times article about the poor being audited (and denied tax refunds) at a much higher rate than everyone else, I remembered this book and seeing it in the bargain bin at Amazon.com, decided to buy it.
This is an incredibly well researched book --- Johnston won the Pulitzer prize in 2001, and has been nominated 3 other times, and his writing and research shows. Here are a few questions that Johnston raises and answers: What is the Alternative Minimum Tax, and how did it arise? And why is it becoming something that you should be worried about? Why do the poor get audited 47 times more frequently than everybody else? How did Enron use limited partnerships to pay zero taxes while claiming to make $2 billion a year? Why does the IRS not go after tax cheats? Do the fabulously wealthy (those making $3 million a year or more) really pay a lot more taxes than everybody else? How is the Social Security tax regressive?
As I re-read this book, I am struck again and again by how much the wealthy (anyone making more than $100k a year) and the super-rich ($3 million and up) have skewed our tax system in their favor, while leaving the rest of society to foot the bill and causing our deficit to balloon. I consider this book a must-read for those who wish to consider themselves educated and responsible voters. Even if you don't wish to become one, at least do it so that you won't become one of these chumps:
Tom Toth says he is comfortable with the fact that not everyone received a rebate. And he is also comfortable with the aspect of the Bush tax cuts that drew the most criticism, the fact that 43 percent of the income tax cuts, and more than half of the total tax cuts, go to the top 1 percent. "The top 1 percent is probably paying more than 43 percent of all the taxes, so they should be getting the cuts," he said.
But Tom is mistaken. The tax burden on the top 1 percent is nowhere near that hgh, although so many politicians and antitax advocates have made such false claims so many times that millions of Americans believe it to be true. The top 1 percent paid 36 percent of the income taxes in 2001. But when the burden of all federal taxes is added up --- corporate profits, estate, gift, Social Security, Medicare and excise taxes --- they only paid 25 percent.
When the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002, and 2003 are fully in place in 2010, the share of taxes paid by the bottom 95 percent of tax payers will rise by 3.8 percentage points, while for the top 5 percent it will fall by the same amount. Nearly all the tax savings will go to the top 1 percent, whose share will decline by 2.7 percentage points.
It is sad that despite how well written this book and how many awards it has won, it will have no effect on the next election --- our education system has failed us to the point where our politics are determined by sound-bites and TV, not well-informed discussion and debate (believe me, I've had discussions with people in the office I work who come extremely close to saying things like: "Don't confuse me with facts!"). I'm afraid that there will have to be a Great Depression like economic disaster before the population wakes up enough to vote in a responsible politician like Franklin Roosevelt to restore the Great Society.
This is an incredibly well researched book --- Johnston won the Pulitzer prize in 2001, and has been nominated 3 other times, and his writing and research shows. Here are a few questions that Johnston raises and answers: What is the Alternative Minimum Tax, and how did it arise? And why is it becoming something that you should be worried about? Why do the poor get audited 47 times more frequently than everybody else? How did Enron use limited partnerships to pay zero taxes while claiming to make $2 billion a year? Why does the IRS not go after tax cheats? Do the fabulously wealthy (those making $3 million a year or more) really pay a lot more taxes than everybody else? How is the Social Security tax regressive?
As I re-read this book, I am struck again and again by how much the wealthy (anyone making more than $100k a year) and the super-rich ($3 million and up) have skewed our tax system in their favor, while leaving the rest of society to foot the bill and causing our deficit to balloon. I consider this book a must-read for those who wish to consider themselves educated and responsible voters. Even if you don't wish to become one, at least do it so that you won't become one of these chumps:
Tom Toth says he is comfortable with the fact that not everyone received a rebate. And he is also comfortable with the aspect of the Bush tax cuts that drew the most criticism, the fact that 43 percent of the income tax cuts, and more than half of the total tax cuts, go to the top 1 percent. "The top 1 percent is probably paying more than 43 percent of all the taxes, so they should be getting the cuts," he said.
But Tom is mistaken. The tax burden on the top 1 percent is nowhere near that hgh, although so many politicians and antitax advocates have made such false claims so many times that millions of Americans believe it to be true. The top 1 percent paid 36 percent of the income taxes in 2001. But when the burden of all federal taxes is added up --- corporate profits, estate, gift, Social Security, Medicare and excise taxes --- they only paid 25 percent.
When the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002, and 2003 are fully in place in 2010, the share of taxes paid by the bottom 95 percent of tax payers will rise by 3.8 percentage points, while for the top 5 percent it will fall by the same amount. Nearly all the tax savings will go to the top 1 percent, whose share will decline by 2.7 percentage points.
It is sad that despite how well written this book and how many awards it has won, it will have no effect on the next election --- our education system has failed us to the point where our politics are determined by sound-bites and TV, not well-informed discussion and debate (believe me, I've had discussions with people in the office I work who come extremely close to saying things like: "Don't confuse me with facts!"). I'm afraid that there will have to be a Great Depression like economic disaster before the population wakes up enough to vote in a responsible politician like Franklin Roosevelt to restore the Great Society.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
More Bike Mainteneance
Our tandem timing chain and my commute bike's chain all decided to wear out at the same time, so when I measured the chains today after a ride I had to replace all of them. The commute bike's easy and cheap: 8-speed chains are ancient, and I know the exact length (i.e., one entire box worth of chain), and the chain comes with a handy quick link, so the switch was over in 20 minutes (including time taken to attempt to clean the rear deraileur pulleys).
The timing chain requires 2 chains. I had half of a chain left over, and an extra chain sitting around. I use single speed chains on the timing chain --- the chain never shifts and the chainline is always perfect, so why waste money using expensive deraileur chains? Putting together the chain is a pain, though, since I only have one quick link, I had to pull the pins apart using a chaintool. It's been a really long time since I last did this, so it took me much more time to get it right than it should. And when I was finished, I'd found that I'd put a half-twist in the chain! So it was off and on again. Sigh.
At least we got some riding in today. 38 miles, and we hit our top speed of 52.3mph coming down Los Trancos! Woohoo!
The timing chain requires 2 chains. I had half of a chain left over, and an extra chain sitting around. I use single speed chains on the timing chain --- the chain never shifts and the chainline is always perfect, so why waste money using expensive deraileur chains? Putting together the chain is a pain, though, since I only have one quick link, I had to pull the pins apart using a chaintool. It's been a really long time since I last did this, so it took me much more time to get it right than it should. And when I was finished, I'd found that I'd put a half-twist in the chain! So it was off and on again. Sigh.
At least we got some riding in today. 38 miles, and we hit our top speed of 52.3mph coming down Los Trancos! Woohoo!
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Waking Life
Doug Orleans told me that the two characters from Before Sunset/Before Sunrise show up in "Waking Life", and I'd become a Richard Linklater fan from those two movies alone, that we had to see "Waking Life."
The animation in "Waking Life" was done by filming the movie as though it was a life-action film on digital video and then rotoscoped and recolored. The result is a mish-mash of art styles, where everything moves, buildings, streets, and the position of a person's features. This is not a movie to watch if Doom gave you motion-sickness.
As with the other Linklater movies that I reviewed, this movie is mostly talking heads in a dream-like sequence. Discussion after discussion follow, starting with a pretty decent exposition of existentialism as a philosophy and then transitioning to a lamenting of the limitation of words (a common theme amongst English professors everywhere, it seems), an explanation of how lucid dreaming works, along with some statements on the nature of human living. Linklater attempts to be deep, but seriously, trying to understand anything in depth in a 100 minute movie is a lost cause.
I don't consider the movie a waste of time, but Lisa was thoroughly lost in several sections of it, and keeping up with the dialogue and transitions (some of which don't make sense, just like a dream) was a chore in some cases. A cautious thumbs up from me, but watch "Before Sunset/Before Sunrise" first, and decide if you like Linklater's movies. If you're not already a fan of his work, this movie will leave you cold.
The animation in "Waking Life" was done by filming the movie as though it was a life-action film on digital video and then rotoscoped and recolored. The result is a mish-mash of art styles, where everything moves, buildings, streets, and the position of a person's features. This is not a movie to watch if Doom gave you motion-sickness.
As with the other Linklater movies that I reviewed, this movie is mostly talking heads in a dream-like sequence. Discussion after discussion follow, starting with a pretty decent exposition of existentialism as a philosophy and then transitioning to a lamenting of the limitation of words (a common theme amongst English professors everywhere, it seems), an explanation of how lucid dreaming works, along with some statements on the nature of human living. Linklater attempts to be deep, but seriously, trying to understand anything in depth in a 100 minute movie is a lost cause.
I don't consider the movie a waste of time, but Lisa was thoroughly lost in several sections of it, and keeping up with the dialogue and transitions (some of which don't make sense, just like a dream) was a chore in some cases. A cautious thumbs up from me, but watch "Before Sunset/Before Sunrise" first, and decide if you like Linklater's movies. If you're not already a fan of his work, this movie will leave you cold.
Review: Veronica Mars, Season 1
Lisa & I spent the last couple of weeks watching nothing but Veronica Mars, a TV show hailed by many as the successor to Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. The show, it's basic plot, and the characters involved are discussed extensively elsewhere, so I won't discuss the basics.
Veronica Mars falls into the "mystery story" genre, much like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, or perhaps, Kinsey Milhone in a teen/high school setting. From what I can tell, American High School is hell, and many of America's executive producers and script writers are still trying to work through the trauma of having to attend one by producing TV shows and movies about their experiences. The alternative explanation, that teens are the most avid consumers of TV and (especially) movie media is too depressing to contemplate.
In any case, Veronica Mars is firmly in the genre, with each episode revolving around a (usually high school related) mystery to be solved, with an over-arching plot/mystery involving the protagonist. Most of the mysteries are more easily solved by the viewer by playing the meta-game of figuring out what the misdirection of the plot is, rather than observing the clues provided by the show, since the writers do work very hard at the misdirection. In any case, the mystery is barely the point in most cases, since Rob Thomas tries to make many of the shows as Chandler-resque as possible, down to an occasional voice-over which doesn't quite make it as a "hard-boiled" voice of the protagonist.
Veronica Mars herself is an incredibly strong character. She's smart, sassy, courageous, and has no room in herself for doubt, angst, or self-pity. She has the maturity to admit when she's wrong, and is mature enough to let a beau down as soon as she realizes that she's dating someone else. Too good to be real? Very much so, but this is TV, and while watching the series we did not at all mind listening to Kristen Bell speak dialogue that sounds great when snapped back as an off-the-cuff remark, but we would have taken a day or so before coming back with such a snappy comeback. One does wonder where Veronica finds the time to do homework, but I do have friends who were smart enough that homework took up very little time (especially given the pathetic standards we have for Science and Math in the U.S.), and had time to play pool before finals, and the series does establish Veronica as being a very smart, precocious teen. The supporting cast includes Veronica Mars' convenient contacts: a teacher's aide, a young police officer at the sheriff's office, a computer expert (a girl, of course), and the leader of the local biker gang. Enrico Colantoni also plays Keith Mars, in what I consider to be the healthiest father/daughter relationship I've seen on TV --- Keith Mars is neither an absent father nor a bumbler.
The inevitable comparison with Buffy: Veronica Mars is a genre show that uses its strong characters to provide human interest, mis-direction, and plot, while Buffy is a character-driven show that uses its genre's tropes and plots as a metaphor for what its characters go through as part of growing up. Buffy and "the scoobies" grow and mature over the years, while Veronica Mars is already such a fully developed human being that I don't know if she's got a lot more room to develop as a person (but I am eager for Rob Thomas to surprise me). Joss Whedon is not afraid to put Buffy through hell, and while Veronica does have her (metaphorical rather than literal) demons to confront, she deals with them so deftly and with such self-confidence that the impact on the viewer is lessened.
In any case, Lisa, who could not watch Buffy because of its genre trappings, kept clamoring to see the next episode every time I wanted to pause the DVD for the night, so obviously she gives Veronica Mars a thumbs up, as do I. It is very much worth your time.
STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS
There are a few shows that have massive plot holes. For instance, in Kanes and Abels, we are asked to believe that the father of a working class Chinese over-achiever, Hamilton Cho, hired a private investigator to haress an academic rival of Cho's. We've established that a private investigator cost about $250 a day, yet we see Cho working at his father's Pizza Restaurant. I can't think of a situation in which an Asian parent would not hire help for the restuarant during exams for $250 a day and have his kid study instead of the dubious tactic of hiring a PI to
harrass a classmate. Nevertheless, the episode manages to portray the Cho as a cool character, so the episode doesn't suck too badly as a whole.
Veronica Mars falls into the "mystery story" genre, much like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, or perhaps, Kinsey Milhone in a teen/high school setting. From what I can tell, American High School is hell, and many of America's executive producers and script writers are still trying to work through the trauma of having to attend one by producing TV shows and movies about their experiences. The alternative explanation, that teens are the most avid consumers of TV and (especially) movie media is too depressing to contemplate.
In any case, Veronica Mars is firmly in the genre, with each episode revolving around a (usually high school related) mystery to be solved, with an over-arching plot/mystery involving the protagonist. Most of the mysteries are more easily solved by the viewer by playing the meta-game of figuring out what the misdirection of the plot is, rather than observing the clues provided by the show, since the writers do work very hard at the misdirection. In any case, the mystery is barely the point in most cases, since Rob Thomas tries to make many of the shows as Chandler-resque as possible, down to an occasional voice-over which doesn't quite make it as a "hard-boiled" voice of the protagonist.
Veronica Mars herself is an incredibly strong character. She's smart, sassy, courageous, and has no room in herself for doubt, angst, or self-pity. She has the maturity to admit when she's wrong, and is mature enough to let a beau down as soon as she realizes that she's dating someone else. Too good to be real? Very much so, but this is TV, and while watching the series we did not at all mind listening to Kristen Bell speak dialogue that sounds great when snapped back as an off-the-cuff remark, but we would have taken a day or so before coming back with such a snappy comeback. One does wonder where Veronica finds the time to do homework, but I do have friends who were smart enough that homework took up very little time (especially given the pathetic standards we have for Science and Math in the U.S.), and had time to play pool before finals, and the series does establish Veronica as being a very smart, precocious teen. The supporting cast includes Veronica Mars' convenient contacts: a teacher's aide, a young police officer at the sheriff's office, a computer expert (a girl, of course), and the leader of the local biker gang. Enrico Colantoni also plays Keith Mars, in what I consider to be the healthiest father/daughter relationship I've seen on TV --- Keith Mars is neither an absent father nor a bumbler.
The inevitable comparison with Buffy: Veronica Mars is a genre show that uses its strong characters to provide human interest, mis-direction, and plot, while Buffy is a character-driven show that uses its genre's tropes and plots as a metaphor for what its characters go through as part of growing up. Buffy and "the scoobies" grow and mature over the years, while Veronica Mars is already such a fully developed human being that I don't know if she's got a lot more room to develop as a person (but I am eager for Rob Thomas to surprise me). Joss Whedon is not afraid to put Buffy through hell, and while Veronica does have her (metaphorical rather than literal) demons to confront, she deals with them so deftly and with such self-confidence that the impact on the viewer is lessened.
In any case, Lisa, who could not watch Buffy because of its genre trappings, kept clamoring to see the next episode every time I wanted to pause the DVD for the night, so obviously she gives Veronica Mars a thumbs up, as do I. It is very much worth your time.
STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS
There are a few shows that have massive plot holes. For instance, in Kanes and Abels, we are asked to believe that the father of a working class Chinese over-achiever, Hamilton Cho, hired a private investigator to haress an academic rival of Cho's. We've established that a private investigator cost about $250 a day, yet we see Cho working at his father's Pizza Restaurant. I can't think of a situation in which an Asian parent would not hire help for the restuarant during exams for $250 a day and have his kid study instead of the dubious tactic of hiring a PI to
harrass a classmate. Nevertheless, the episode manages to portray the Cho as a cool character, so the episode doesn't suck too badly as a whole.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Vanguard on the 401(k) versus Roth 401(k) trade off
A very enlightening report, and one worth paying a lot of attention to, especially if you're subject to AMT.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Scott Burns reflects on what he's learnt
I know this is late, but I think it's very much worth reading:
I came of age in Boston. There are a lot of smart people there. If you doubt it, just ask them.
I could easily populate this column with the brilliant money manager of the moment. I also enjoy listening to smart, articulate people.
But 40 years of investing has taught me that rented brains seldom help us build our nest eggs. Rented brains feel a deep spiritual need to build 20,000-square-foot log cabins in Jackson Hole with the return on our money.
That's why some readers think I am Johnny One Note, always writing about investment expenses rather than the hot fund, product or stock of the moment. But indexing and keeping things simple is the way for you and me to succeed.
The other ways are how Wall Street succeeds. Big difference.
The more I learn about finance, the more I think that paid money managers are a fool's game, especially if you're a highly technically proficient person (like a software engineer). Financial planning is not harder than C++ programming, but it can have a huge effect on the outcome of your ultimate wealth, so delegating it to someone else (and someone who can have major conflicts of interests) can lead to extremely bad outcomes, such as the second question Scott Burns answers in this column.
Even more horrifying, however, is the lack of knowledge among Americans about basic finances:
Studies show that many people overestimate their knowledge of everything from inflation to risk diversification and compound interest. One survey in Australia found that 37% of people who owned investments did not know that they could fluctuate in value. In America 31% did not know that the finance charge on a credit-card statement is what they pay to use credit.
31%!! That's almost one third the population! No wonder Americans spend $50 billion a year on consumer credit interest.
I came of age in Boston. There are a lot of smart people there. If you doubt it, just ask them.
I could easily populate this column with the brilliant money manager of the moment. I also enjoy listening to smart, articulate people.
But 40 years of investing has taught me that rented brains seldom help us build our nest eggs. Rented brains feel a deep spiritual need to build 20,000-square-foot log cabins in Jackson Hole with the return on our money.
That's why some readers think I am Johnny One Note, always writing about investment expenses rather than the hot fund, product or stock of the moment. But indexing and keeping things simple is the way for you and me to succeed.
The other ways are how Wall Street succeeds. Big difference.
The more I learn about finance, the more I think that paid money managers are a fool's game, especially if you're a highly technically proficient person (like a software engineer). Financial planning is not harder than C++ programming, but it can have a huge effect on the outcome of your ultimate wealth, so delegating it to someone else (and someone who can have major conflicts of interests) can lead to extremely bad outcomes, such as the second question Scott Burns answers in this column.
Even more horrifying, however, is the lack of knowledge among Americans about basic finances:
Studies show that many people overestimate their knowledge of everything from inflation to risk diversification and compound interest. One survey in Australia found that 37% of people who owned investments did not know that they could fluctuate in value. In America 31% did not know that the finance charge on a credit-card statement is what they pay to use credit.
31%!! That's almost one third the population! No wonder Americans spend $50 billion a year on consumer credit interest.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Black Mountain, again
My hiking partner didn't show up, so I hiked the trail alone. The visibility today was just amazing. Even at a mere 500 feet up, I could see all the way to Berkeley. The trail was a bit soft and muddy with all the recent rain, and there weren't many folks on the trail, but that was a good thing --- by myself, I spotted 2 deer, and amongst the most elusive of creatures, a fox!
For the first time, I rode my bike to and from the Black Mountain trailhead. The transition is a bit tricky --- my calves felt a bit stiff from the ride, and the immediate climb was a bit slow.
For the first time, I rode my bike to and from the Black Mountain trailhead. The transition is a bit tricky --- my calves felt a bit stiff from the ride, and the immediate climb was a bit slow.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Human beings are Bayesian thinkers
This report does make sense to me. In particular, Steven Levitt, in his visit to Google pointed out that in the prehistoric world, the cost of making a false causual connection is low (such as carrying a rabbit's foot around), while the cost of not making an accurate prediction from a small sample size (i.e., you hear a roar of a tiger --- the last time you heard a roar of a tiger, your friend got eaten. Do you stop to think, "That's only a sample size of one?") could be very high, hence superstition prevails.
Indeed, some people suspect that the parsimony of Bayesian reasoning leads occasionally to it going spectacularly awry, with whatever process it is that forms the priors getting further and further off-track rather than converging on the correct distribution.
That might explain the emergence of superstitious behaviour, with an accidental correlation or two being misinterpreted by the brain as causal. A frequentist way of doing things would reduce the risk of that happening. But by the time the frequentist had enough data to draw a conclusion, he might already be dead.
Indeed, some people suspect that the parsimony of Bayesian reasoning leads occasionally to it going spectacularly awry, with whatever process it is that forms the priors getting further and further off-track rather than converging on the correct distribution.
That might explain the emergence of superstitious behaviour, with an accidental correlation or two being misinterpreted by the brain as causal. A frequentist way of doing things would reduce the risk of that happening. But by the time the frequentist had enough data to draw a conclusion, he might already be dead.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
The American Pika will soon be extinct
I was very tempted to title this post: "Republicans are Evil, Part V". Lara Hansen, Senior Scientist of Climate Change at the World Wildlife Fund came to give a talk about the impact of global warming on animal habitats, and mentioned in passing that the American Pika is one of the most affected by global warming.I asked her why if there was such consensus among climate scientists that global warming was real there's so much controversy in the papers. Her response was that the press loves to find "balance", and always quote the same 5 "scientists" in Virginia who on the "opposite side", even though 3000 other climate scientists all come to the same consensus: that the effect is real, and that if we do everything we can, we might be able to limit warming to 2 degrees centigrade. My guess is that those 5 "scientists" were really bought off by the petroleum industry, which like all big-business spends a lot of money lobbying the GOP. (Not to say that Democrats can't be bought off, but they tend to have opposing special interests to support that balance their desire to be bought off by big corporations)
You can see the same effect at work over the so-called Intelligent Design controversy: the only people who see the theory of evolution as being "only a theory" are the same right-wing idiots at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, yet the New York Times (amongst other newspapers) insist on treating those idiots with the same amount of respect as serious scientists like Richard Dawkins.
Anyway, a little bit about this picture: Lisa & I shot this picture in 2002 on a backpacking/hiking trip through Grand Teton National Park. I felt very lucky to be able to get this close with a 200mm lens --- at that time I certainly did not know that the Pika will be a victim of global warming. That trip was photographically very rewarding, and I can only hope that the Coast-to-Coast next year will also be as productive.
American pikas are particularly vulnerable to global warming because they reside in areas with cool, relatively moist climates like those normally found in mountaintop habitats. As temperatures rise due to increasing emissions of heat-trapping gases, many alpine animals are expected to seek higher elevations or migrate northward in an attempt to find suitable habitat. Yet, American pikas in these regions have little option for escape from the pressures of climate change because migration across low-elevation valleys represents an incalculably high risk-and perhaps an impossibility under current climate regimes-for them.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Movie Review: Lost in Translation
This is not a great movie. It's been widely critically acclaimed (Rotten Tomatoes rating of 95%), but compared to the delightful pair of movies Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, it felt like a complete waste of time. The characters did not have a connection other than a general sense of midlife ennui. The humor is mostly based on the juxtaposition of the typical ugly American who does not bother so much as to learn a tiny bit of a foreign language before landing on foreign shores with a modern Japanese culture that is admittedly quite bizarre. But seriously, I can't believe that a 24-year old in Japan by herself would not find more interesting things to do than what the Scarlett Johansson character did.
Two thumbs down. I feel compelled to try to save my friends the hour and 40 minutes that represent this movie.
Two thumbs down. I feel compelled to try to save my friends the hour and 40 minutes that represent this movie.
Movie Review: Batman Begins
Comic book superheroes are a form of modern mythology. Even the comic book themselves "reboot" the stories on a regular basis, and each writer seems to bring a new sensibility or a different perspective to the stories. What I find fascinating is that there is a sort of "open-source" approach to the mythologies: good ideas get elaborated upon, and bad ideas get ignored in later retellings of the same story.
Batman, for instance, gets retold regularly (by Frank Miller, who did a fantastic job with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One), and there are perhaps only a few inviolable parts of the canon: his alter-ego is playboy millionaire Bruce Wayne, and his parents were murdered in an alley shooting. All else is up for grabs.
Christopher Nolan, who also made Memento, takes a non-linear approach to the story, spending a good hour on the development of Bruce Wayne and his transformation from rich orphan to vigilante to hero. I thought the choice of Ra's Al Ghul, and the Scarecrow as the villains of the piece to be a great move: the story becomes much more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than it would be about his colorful adversaries.
Highly recommended. (And for a more in depth review, see: Matt Brunson's)
Batman, for instance, gets retold regularly (by Frank Miller, who did a fantastic job with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One), and there are perhaps only a few inviolable parts of the canon: his alter-ego is playboy millionaire Bruce Wayne, and his parents were murdered in an alley shooting. All else is up for grabs.
Christopher Nolan, who also made Memento, takes a non-linear approach to the story, spending a good hour on the development of Bruce Wayne and his transformation from rich orphan to vigilante to hero. I thought the choice of Ra's Al Ghul, and the Scarecrow as the villains of the piece to be a great move: the story becomes much more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than it would be about his colorful adversaries.
Highly recommended. (And for a more in depth review, see: Matt Brunson's)
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Ipod photo 60GB review
My brothers gave me an ipod photo 60G for my birthday, and it's taken me this long before getting around to a review. The first thing I did was to take it on a 16 mile hike up half-dome. (Half-dome is not a wilderness experience, so it's not like you're losing anything by listening to music) The ipod held up fine on the 10 hour hike, and seemed to handle abuse just fine.
I did acquire a Speck skin for the ipod (hint: don't use the screen protector, it scratches the screen!) pretty early on.
There's something special about having your entire music collection in one place (and having 60GB means you'll never have to choose which CDs you bring with you), and the ipod does sound good when used with a decent set of headphones.
The big minuses have to do with the hard drive: my ipod seems to be particularly sensitive to knocks or sharp motions, which don't cause my ipod to skip but do cause it to suddenly stop playing until I push the play button again. It even does that when I'm just moving the ipod a little quickly. The sudden stop doesn't happen a lot when hiking with my ipod in my camelbak, but does seem to happen a distressing number of times when cycling with it in my jersey pockets. (I've since switched to an ipod shuffle for cycling) I see people running with the ipod strapped to their arms, so clearly, those armband things would probably work for cycling as well, but I don't like the idea of having something wrapped around my arm, and my shuffle works just fine for situations where I'm likely to get knocked around.
In any case, I have the ipod to thank for the sudden increase in music listening (much more in the last 3 months than in the previous 3 years combined), and access to podcasts (I highly recommend Radio Memories podcasts, a nice collection of old-time radio broadcasts during the golden age of radio). On the other hand, given how it has caused me to spend more money buying CDs to feed the darn thing (a direct consequence of my listening to more music), maybe I shouldn't be so thankful!
I did acquire a Speck skin for the ipod (hint: don't use the screen protector, it scratches the screen!) pretty early on.
There's something special about having your entire music collection in one place (and having 60GB means you'll never have to choose which CDs you bring with you), and the ipod does sound good when used with a decent set of headphones.
The big minuses have to do with the hard drive: my ipod seems to be particularly sensitive to knocks or sharp motions, which don't cause my ipod to skip but do cause it to suddenly stop playing until I push the play button again. It even does that when I'm just moving the ipod a little quickly. The sudden stop doesn't happen a lot when hiking with my ipod in my camelbak, but does seem to happen a distressing number of times when cycling with it in my jersey pockets. (I've since switched to an ipod shuffle for cycling) I see people running with the ipod strapped to their arms, so clearly, those armband things would probably work for cycling as well, but I don't like the idea of having something wrapped around my arm, and my shuffle works just fine for situations where I'm likely to get knocked around.
In any case, I have the ipod to thank for the sudden increase in music listening (much more in the last 3 months than in the previous 3 years combined), and access to podcasts (I highly recommend Radio Memories podcasts, a nice collection of old-time radio broadcasts during the golden age of radio). On the other hand, given how it has caused me to spend more money buying CDs to feed the darn thing (a direct consequence of my listening to more music), maybe I shouldn't be so thankful!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Stereo Systems
Lisa's all-in-one stereo system broke, and she asked if I would get her one. "It doesn't have to be too expensive," she said, "it's not like either of us are picky about sound systems." "Wait a minute, I'm picky!" Then I realized that for my entire adult life, I had never even owned a pair of speakers.
So the day after Christmas, we took the time to visit Magnolia Audio/Video in Palo Alto (we were on the way home after a lunch with some of Lisa's friends in South San Francisco). My best audio system is a pair of Sennheiser 600s hooked up to a Headroom headphone amp. The combination sounds incredibly good, and I didn't expect to be able to approach the quality in a full size stereo system without a lot of money, but I wanted a calibration against what was possible.
I hate shops that employ sales people, so we first had to wait patiently to find a sales guy who would open up one of their listening rooms so we could hear what a really good system would sound like. Our first listen was to a pair of $1400 speakers mated to a $1400 integrated amp. This was our first experience with a true hi-fi system, and it truly was amazing. The speakers did disappear into the background and we could locate the singer and instruments in appropriate locations inj front of us. We were impressed, but not prepared to fork out $2800, especially since we knew our listening location would not be as ideal as a listening room in a hi-end audio shop.
We walked out to try to find another audio shop, but none of the other audio places were opened on the day after Christmas, so we came back and walked around. In the clearance area of the store, however, I spotted a pair of Boston Acoustics CR95 speakers at 50% off. ($300 a pair) Lisa admired the maple box, which would fit in with the rest of the decor, so we asked to audition it against other speakers.
The sales guy moved the speakers into the room and wired it up, and after some time, we got to compare it against a set of $1200 speakers. These sounded just as good to us as the more expensive pair, so I knew we would buy the speakers. Then it was a matter of finding an amplifier. We auditioned three Denons: the DRA 295, a 50W amp, the 85W version, and the 100W version. The 100W version was clearly bad --- the speakers sounded like they were being overpowered. (All amplifiers sound the same, so there's no point auditioning different brands --- shop by power, price and features) The difference between the 50W and the 85W version was subtle --- Lisa couldn't tell the difference, and I could barely tell the difference (and it could easily have been my imagination). Given that our apartment was so small that even the 50W could drive the speakers louder than our neighbors could stand, we saved the $100 and bought the 50W integrated amplifier ($230), which came with AM/FM and video capability. The Toshiba DVD player I'd bought 4 years ago would play CDs, so we were set except for cables, one set of which would be used to drive the amp from my ipod.
It took an hour to get everything set up once we got home, but the sound was still amazing when we were done. I was impressed by how good everything sounded, and Lisa spent a good part of the day listening to music just because of how good it sounded. In fact, the resolution of the system was so good that I quickly became disappointed by how the ipod sounded compared to the same CD played through the Toshiba DVD player. I'd spent the better part of 3 days turning my CD collection into 320-VBR MP3s for my ipod, and now it looks like I prefer the sound of the CDs to the convenience of the ipod.
So the day after Christmas, we took the time to visit Magnolia Audio/Video in Palo Alto (we were on the way home after a lunch with some of Lisa's friends in South San Francisco). My best audio system is a pair of Sennheiser 600s hooked up to a Headroom headphone amp. The combination sounds incredibly good, and I didn't expect to be able to approach the quality in a full size stereo system without a lot of money, but I wanted a calibration against what was possible.
I hate shops that employ sales people, so we first had to wait patiently to find a sales guy who would open up one of their listening rooms so we could hear what a really good system would sound like. Our first listen was to a pair of $1400 speakers mated to a $1400 integrated amp. This was our first experience with a true hi-fi system, and it truly was amazing. The speakers did disappear into the background and we could locate the singer and instruments in appropriate locations inj front of us. We were impressed, but not prepared to fork out $2800, especially since we knew our listening location would not be as ideal as a listening room in a hi-end audio shop.
We walked out to try to find another audio shop, but none of the other audio places were opened on the day after Christmas, so we came back and walked around. In the clearance area of the store, however, I spotted a pair of Boston Acoustics CR95 speakers at 50% off. ($300 a pair) Lisa admired the maple box, which would fit in with the rest of the decor, so we asked to audition it against other speakers.
The sales guy moved the speakers into the room and wired it up, and after some time, we got to compare it against a set of $1200 speakers. These sounded just as good to us as the more expensive pair, so I knew we would buy the speakers. Then it was a matter of finding an amplifier. We auditioned three Denons: the DRA 295, a 50W amp, the 85W version, and the 100W version. The 100W version was clearly bad --- the speakers sounded like they were being overpowered. (All amplifiers sound the same, so there's no point auditioning different brands --- shop by power, price and features) The difference between the 50W and the 85W version was subtle --- Lisa couldn't tell the difference, and I could barely tell the difference (and it could easily have been my imagination). Given that our apartment was so small that even the 50W could drive the speakers louder than our neighbors could stand, we saved the $100 and bought the 50W integrated amplifier ($230), which came with AM/FM and video capability. The Toshiba DVD player I'd bought 4 years ago would play CDs, so we were set except for cables, one set of which would be used to drive the amp from my ipod.
It took an hour to get everything set up once we got home, but the sound was still amazing when we were done. I was impressed by how good everything sounded, and Lisa spent a good part of the day listening to music just because of how good it sounded. In fact, the resolution of the system was so good that I quickly became disappointed by how the ipod sounded compared to the same CD played through the Toshiba DVD player. I'd spent the better part of 3 days turning my CD collection into 320-VBR MP3s for my ipod, and now it looks like I prefer the sound of the CDs to the convenience of the ipod.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Excession, by Iain Banks
A culture novel, Banks' utopia where Minds (AIs) determine the future of a human-like race. This is a reasonably good novel, on par with Consider Phlebas, but not as good as his best culture novel, Use of Weapons. A nit-picky detail: 32-bit identifiers for his minds isn't very realistic, even though they look neat (structured like IP addresses). Nevetheless, this book is complex enough that a second reading showed up gaps in my first reading that I missed, so the book is still recommended. In particular, the conversation between minds (which would never be anything like what's described in this book) is entertaining.
The funniest part of the book comes early:
An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilizations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near aboslute power and control which your halloweed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your preists.
The funniest part of the book comes early:
An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilizations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near aboslute power and control which your halloweed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your preists.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Vehicle Hell
First, Lisa bashed the car into a lamp-post after taking my mom to the airport. It's minor damage, but the body shops are quoting $1100 for repair, which is too much for a 7 year old car, so we're just going to spend $8 on touch-up paint and letting it sit as is.
Then, on Christmas day, the front deraileur cable of the tandem broke in the middle of a short ride. Having only the granny to ride home with was kinda fun. Not. This wasn't too bad to fix. After that, we went on a ride on the day after Christmas. There, we discovered that the 30 tooth, the 27 tooth, and the 24t cogs are worn down enough that the (relatively new) chain was skipping, making standing impossible in those gears. A replacement cassette (at a Performance Bikes sale) was $68.
A great way to end 2005!
Then, on Christmas day, the front deraileur cable of the tandem broke in the middle of a short ride. Having only the granny to ride home with was kinda fun. Not. This wasn't too bad to fix. After that, we went on a ride on the day after Christmas. There, we discovered that the 30 tooth, the 27 tooth, and the 24t cogs are worn down enough that the (relatively new) chain was skipping, making standing impossible in those gears. A replacement cassette (at a Performance Bikes sale) was $68.
A great way to end 2005!
Monday, December 26, 2005
Philip Pullman in The New Yorker
This week's New Yorker has a great article about Philip Pullman, including his opinion about Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and the themes behind His Dark Materials. The entire article is worth reading, and Pullman makes great points about Tolkein & Lewis' works.
His books have been likened to those of J. R. R. Tolkien, another alumnus, but he scoffs at the notion of any resemblance. “ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is fundamentally an infantile work,” he said. “Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He’s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.” When it comes to “The Chronicles of Narnia,” by C. S. Lewis, Pullman’s antipathy is even more pronounced. Although he likes Lewis’s criticism and quotes it surprisingly often, he considers the fantasy series “morally loathsome.”
In Pullman’s view, the “Chronicles,” which end with the rest of the family’s ascension to a neo-Platonic version of Narnia after they die in a railway accident, teach that “death is better than life; boys are better than girls . . . and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it.”
Sexual love, regarded with apprehension in Lewis’s fiction and largely ignored in Tolkien’s, saves the world in “His Dark Materials,” when Lyra’s coming of age and falling in love mystically bring about the mending of a perilous cosmological rift. “The idea of keeping childhood alive forever and ever and regretting the passage into adulthood—whether it’s a gentle, rose-tinged regret or a passionate, full-blooded hatred, as it is in Lewis—is simply wrong,” Pullman told me.
His books have been likened to those of J. R. R. Tolkien, another alumnus, but he scoffs at the notion of any resemblance. “ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is fundamentally an infantile work,” he said. “Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He’s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.” When it comes to “The Chronicles of Narnia,” by C. S. Lewis, Pullman’s antipathy is even more pronounced. Although he likes Lewis’s criticism and quotes it surprisingly often, he considers the fantasy series “morally loathsome.”
In Pullman’s view, the “Chronicles,” which end with the rest of the family’s ascension to a neo-Platonic version of Narnia after they die in a railway accident, teach that “death is better than life; boys are better than girls . . . and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it.”
Sexual love, regarded with apprehension in Lewis’s fiction and largely ignored in Tolkien’s, saves the world in “His Dark Materials,” when Lyra’s coming of age and falling in love mystically bring about the mending of a perilous cosmological rift. “The idea of keeping childhood alive forever and ever and regretting the passage into adulthood—whether it’s a gentle, rose-tinged regret or a passionate, full-blooded hatred, as it is in Lewis—is simply wrong,” Pullman told me.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas Eve Steep Ravine/Matt Davis
With the forecast for weather in the mid-60s, we had to do a hike what I consider the prettiest hike in the Bay Area: Steep Ravine/Matt Davis. Usually, we do Matt Davis/Steep Ravine from Pantoll Ranger Station, but with heavy fog at the start, we opted for the reverse, descending Steep Ravine and coming up Matt Davis. This was the most beautiful I've ever seen the area. As a passing hiker said, "Nothing but scenery and more scenery. You're going to hate it!" Coming up Matt Davis was a surfacing out of the woods into gorgeous open space.
We shot well over 100 pictures on this hike that day, and you can see the selected shots below.
We shot well over 100 pictures on this hike that day, and you can see the selected shots below.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
This pair of movies needs to be rented/bought/watched as close to being back to back as you can. (Neither is very long, so watching both won't be a big time sink) Watch Before Sunrise first. This pair of movies come highly recommended.
The first thing that strikes me about the movies is the question, how can movies that are essentially 2 people walking and talking work at all? But when you're done watching the movie, you realize that many of the most intense moments of your life have been just the two of you, walking or talking (or maybe in my case, cycling and talking), so maybe that question should never have come up in the first place.
Before Sunrise deals with the moment of the chance encounter --- the accidental meeting of someone, making a connection, and then taking a risk and getting to know them. Jesse & Celine meet on a train, and Jesse persuades Celine to make an unplanned stop with him in Vienna to keep him company in the afternoon and evening before he has to catch a plane. The two get to know each other, and what starts out as a chance encounter turns into something magical.
What strikes me about both movies is that they are hyper-real. Before Sunset is shot almost entirely in real time, with no skipped moments. There are moments in my life when I've felt every moment in complete intensity (I remember an interview when I was 16 with a board of 6 or 7 people who were to determine whether I would get a scholarship), and the movies reflect those moments fluidly. I remember the arm wrapping move as Julie Depry puts her arms around Ethan Hawke vividly in Before Sunrise, and there's a moment in the van when she reaches out to touch him but draws back as he turns to look at her --- those moments in the film are so real that they remind me of certain moments in my life, no doubt as the principals intended.
Before Sunset is about the "what if". What if you had made choices differently? What if when you were young and stupid you would have been just a little less stupid? By aging the actors naturally (9 years pass between the first and second movies) there is no contrivance at all in the changes over the years. I especially enjoyed the expression one of the characters made in saying, essentially, "When I was young I had so many choices I threw them away without realizing the preciousness of what I had thrown away." Yet the movies aren't full of regrets, and each movie ends with a question mark.
OK, I've worked very hard not to spoil the movies for you. Go watch it, and don't read any other reviews before watching them. Watch the movies with your significant other, if you have one. It will provide good conversation.
The first thing that strikes me about the movies is the question, how can movies that are essentially 2 people walking and talking work at all? But when you're done watching the movie, you realize that many of the most intense moments of your life have been just the two of you, walking or talking (or maybe in my case, cycling and talking), so maybe that question should never have come up in the first place.
Before Sunrise deals with the moment of the chance encounter --- the accidental meeting of someone, making a connection, and then taking a risk and getting to know them. Jesse & Celine meet on a train, and Jesse persuades Celine to make an unplanned stop with him in Vienna to keep him company in the afternoon and evening before he has to catch a plane. The two get to know each other, and what starts out as a chance encounter turns into something magical.
What strikes me about both movies is that they are hyper-real. Before Sunset is shot almost entirely in real time, with no skipped moments. There are moments in my life when I've felt every moment in complete intensity (I remember an interview when I was 16 with a board of 6 or 7 people who were to determine whether I would get a scholarship), and the movies reflect those moments fluidly. I remember the arm wrapping move as Julie Depry puts her arms around Ethan Hawke vividly in Before Sunrise, and there's a moment in the van when she reaches out to touch him but draws back as he turns to look at her --- those moments in the film are so real that they remind me of certain moments in my life, no doubt as the principals intended.
Before Sunset is about the "what if". What if you had made choices differently? What if when you were young and stupid you would have been just a little less stupid? By aging the actors naturally (9 years pass between the first and second movies) there is no contrivance at all in the changes over the years. I especially enjoyed the expression one of the characters made in saying, essentially, "When I was young I had so many choices I threw them away without realizing the preciousness of what I had thrown away." Yet the movies aren't full of regrets, and each movie ends with a question mark.
OK, I've worked very hard not to spoil the movies for you. Go watch it, and don't read any other reviews before watching them. Watch the movies with your significant other, if you have one. It will provide good conversation.
Best books of 2005
It's the end of the year, and it doesn't look like I'm going to get much reading done in the last few days (plus, my queue is strangely empty) , so I'm going to name the best books I read this year:
Best Book Overall
I think the book I learnt the most from was Climate Crash, which discusses abrupt climate change as the major theory for how Earth's climate behaves. The theory is non-intuitive, backed up by pretty solid evidence, and the book itself is well written. This book narrowly edged out Collapse, which is an important book as well, but not as surprising as Climate Crash for a cynic like me. Yeah, so societies of humans have always been short-sighted and ego and selfishness have brought down entire civilizations. Tell me something I didn't know about humans.
Best Fiction
I really have to say this was not a good year for fiction. I find that the best fiction I read was A Fire Upon The Deep, which unfortunately was a book I'd already read before and was revisiting. Is there not a lot of great new fiction out there, or am I missing something? For fiction I hadn't read before this year, I definitely enjoyed The John Varley Reader, which I found just packed full of great short stories. Salon nominated Never Let Me Go, but Ishiguro's style is so distant that I found myself distanced from the work as well. Even his best work, The Remains of the Day has that quality in it.
Best Graphic Novel
I didn't get in an Alan Moore graphic novel this year, so the best graphic novel goes to Flight Vol 1, but seriously, any Alan Moore graphic novel beats anything I read this year, so once again, I must be missing something. Maybe it's got to do with my refusing to buy any new books and M'Oak not publishing another volume of Thieves & Kings.
Best Book Overall
I think the book I learnt the most from was Climate Crash, which discusses abrupt climate change as the major theory for how Earth's climate behaves. The theory is non-intuitive, backed up by pretty solid evidence, and the book itself is well written. This book narrowly edged out Collapse, which is an important book as well, but not as surprising as Climate Crash for a cynic like me. Yeah, so societies of humans have always been short-sighted and ego and selfishness have brought down entire civilizations. Tell me something I didn't know about humans.
Best Fiction
I really have to say this was not a good year for fiction. I find that the best fiction I read was A Fire Upon The Deep, which unfortunately was a book I'd already read before and was revisiting. Is there not a lot of great new fiction out there, or am I missing something? For fiction I hadn't read before this year, I definitely enjoyed The John Varley Reader, which I found just packed full of great short stories. Salon nominated Never Let Me Go, but Ishiguro's style is so distant that I found myself distanced from the work as well. Even his best work, The Remains of the Day has that quality in it.
Best Graphic Novel
I didn't get in an Alan Moore graphic novel this year, so the best graphic novel goes to Flight Vol 1, but seriously, any Alan Moore graphic novel beats anything I read this year, so once again, I must be missing something. Maybe it's got to do with my refusing to buy any new books and M'Oak not publishing another volume of Thieves & Kings.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Brad de Long on why the last decade has been so good to investors
Why was Shiller wrong? In an arithmetic sense, we can point to three factors, each of which can take roughly one-third the credit for real American stock returns of 6% per year over the past decade rather than zero:
- 2% per year because the acceleration of productivity growth produced by the high-tech revolutions behind the very real "new economy" has made American companies much more productive.
- 2% per year because of shifts in the distribution of income away from labor and toward capital that have boosted corporate profits as a share of production.
- 2% per year because the argument of Glasman and Hassett in Dow 36000 turned out to be only nineteen-twentieths wrong: they argued that increasing risk tolerance on the part of stock market investors would raise long-run price-earnings ratios by 400%; it actually appears that increasing risk tolerance has raised long-run price-earnings ratios by 20% or so.
I will note that Brad gave great investment advice that has since returned better than 40% at the beginning of this year, and I wish I'd put more money in that asset. Some macro-economic trends are both obvious, and easy to place bets on.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Dover Court Decision
Some very nice selected quotes:
Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.
(Page 137)
It is notable that not one defense expert was able to explain how the supernatural action suggested by ID could be anything other than an inherently religious proposition.(Page 31)
... the administrators made the remarkable and awkward statement, as part of the disclaimer, that "there will be no other discussion of the issue and your teachers will not answer questions on this issue."...a reasonable student observer would conclude that ID is a kind of "secret science that students apparently can't discuss with their science teacher" (Pg. 45-46)
In summary, the disclaimer singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.(Pg. 49)
Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.
(Page 137)
It is notable that not one defense expert was able to explain how the supernatural action suggested by ID could be anything other than an inherently religious proposition.(Page 31)
... the administrators made the remarkable and awkward statement, as part of the disclaimer, that "there will be no other discussion of the issue and your teachers will not answer questions on this issue."...a reasonable student observer would conclude that ID is a kind of "secret science that students apparently can't discuss with their science teacher" (Pg. 45-46)
In summary, the disclaimer singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.(Pg. 49)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
An eloquent essay on fantasy and childhood
A theory not only explains the world we see, it lets us imagine other worlds, and, even more significantly, lets us act to create those worlds. Developing everyday theories, like scientific theories, has allowed human beings to change the world. From the perspective of my hunter-gatherer forebears in the Pleistocene Era, everything in the room I write in—the ceramic cup and the carpentered chair no less than the electric light and the computer—was as imaginary, as unreal, as fantastic as Narnia or Hogwarts. The uniquely human evolutionary gift is to combine imagination and logic to articulate possible worlds and then make them real.
Suppose we combine the idea that children are devoted intuitive scientists and the idea that play allows children to learn freely without the practical constraints of adulthood. We can start to see why there should be such a strong link between childhood and fantasy. It's not that children turn to the imaginary instead of the real—it's that a human being who learns about the real world is also simultaneously learning about all the possible worlds that stem from that world.
The link between the scientific and the fantastic also explains why children's fantasy demands the strictest logic, consistency, and attention to detail. A fantasy without that logic is just a mess. The effectiveness of the great children's books comes from the combination of wildly imaginative premises and strictly consistent and logical conclusions from those premises. It is no wonder that the greatest children's fantasists—Carroll, Lewis, Tolkien—had day jobs in the driest reaches of logic and philology.
Which begs the question: what about adults who engage in fantasy, either as readers, movie-goers, or gamers? What are they exploring? Is it personal identity? Fiction has long been used by readers and college professors as ways to explore personality and relationships without engaging in possible harmful behavior. Science Fiction has often been called "the literature of ideas", both by its proponents and detractors. Yet the mainstream has often derided Science Fiction and Fantasy as trite and not worthy of exploration, though that has been changing in recent years.
My personal theory as to why fantasy (and stories of magic and spells and wizards) seem to appeal to a significant fraction of computer scientists is that in many ways our craft is extremely similar to wizardry as portrayed by fantastic literature. The code we type into our computers do seem little more than incantations by non-programmers (or, if the code is enigmatic enough, even by practitioners of the art). And the results do seem in many ways magical. What could be more magical than a photo of a loved one appearing thousands of miles away in a split second? Or having all the music you've ever heard in your lifetime in the palm of your hand? Perhaps that fantasy is a allegory for the very real or unreal world of bits and bytes that we find ourselves immersed in, day after day.
Suppose we combine the idea that children are devoted intuitive scientists and the idea that play allows children to learn freely without the practical constraints of adulthood. We can start to see why there should be such a strong link between childhood and fantasy. It's not that children turn to the imaginary instead of the real—it's that a human being who learns about the real world is also simultaneously learning about all the possible worlds that stem from that world.
The link between the scientific and the fantastic also explains why children's fantasy demands the strictest logic, consistency, and attention to detail. A fantasy without that logic is just a mess. The effectiveness of the great children's books comes from the combination of wildly imaginative premises and strictly consistent and logical conclusions from those premises. It is no wonder that the greatest children's fantasists—Carroll, Lewis, Tolkien—had day jobs in the driest reaches of logic and philology.
Which begs the question: what about adults who engage in fantasy, either as readers, movie-goers, or gamers? What are they exploring? Is it personal identity? Fiction has long been used by readers and college professors as ways to explore personality and relationships without engaging in possible harmful behavior. Science Fiction has often been called "the literature of ideas", both by its proponents and detractors. Yet the mainstream has often derided Science Fiction and Fantasy as trite and not worthy of exploration, though that has been changing in recent years.
My personal theory as to why fantasy (and stories of magic and spells and wizards) seem to appeal to a significant fraction of computer scientists is that in many ways our craft is extremely similar to wizardry as portrayed by fantastic literature. The code we type into our computers do seem little more than incantations by non-programmers (or, if the code is enigmatic enough, even by practitioners of the art). And the results do seem in many ways magical. What could be more magical than a photo of a loved one appearing thousands of miles away in a split second? Or having all the music you've ever heard in your lifetime in the palm of your hand? Perhaps that fantasy is a allegory for the very real or unreal world of bits and bytes that we find ourselves immersed in, day after day.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Cheryl & Steve Prothero at the Western Wheelers Holiday Party
Cheryl won the polka dot jersey for doing the most climbing this year in the Western Wheelers Bicycle Club. The prize is (appropriately enough), a jersey of her choice amongst the various selections available with the club imprint. Congratulations, Cheryl!
Ex-Googlers Blog
I find this blog entirely fascinating. Lots of stuff I didn't know (obviously --- these were all old-timers before I even joined Google), and it's entertaining reading, much more so than the recent spate of books about Google. It's nice to know, though, that incredible wealth hasn't changed most of the current Googlers mentioned in the blog, many of whom are still amongst the nicest people I've ever met.
Google blamed for jump in high tech pay
"It's driven up software engineering wages by 50 percent in the past couple years," Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, the online DVD rental firm in Los Gatos, said recently at a conference for the technology industry's lobbying group.
The irony, of course is that Reed Hastings himself was a top notch software engineer when he started his first company, Pure Software. He took the proverbial second mortgage, and contracted as a consultant while writing Purify in his basement. When Pure went public, Reed deserved every bit of the success he got, including wealth and the other opportunities which he took advantage of. However, not that many of his employees became fabulously wealthy (especially given Pure's later history).
I started working for Pure Software as my first job out of college (and later returned to Pure after a short and none-to-memorable stay in graduate school). Reed managed to get me to stay at Pure for a year (when I had pending admittance to several graduate schools) by giving me (what seemed to me) a huge sign-up bonus, so he knows exactly what it's like to dangle money in front of someone who would be a starving graduate student.
In any case, I returned to Pure after graduate school, and at one point shifted desks. I accidentally left my paystub in my desk, and a senior engineer (hint to fresh grads: make friends with senior engineers who are honest and will give you some mentoring) inherited the desk. He took a look at my paystub, and then came to me privately and said, "You're not getting paid enough." I then went and explored how much the market was willing to pay for an engineer of my caliber in 1995, and discovered to my surprise that I could get a raise of over 45%, along with more stock options from an internet startup (the startup went on to a lucrative IPO before the 2001 bust). I took the job and never looked back. Software companies that under-value their engineers don't last long, and sure enough, Pure Software started bleeding talent soon after, and was eventually acquired by Rational and then IBM.
So as far as I'm concerned, the problem with the software industry isn't that of overpaying engineers as much as corporations systematically under-valuing engineering talent. Less than 1% of the population is capable of becoming good software engineers, and most of those people don't become software engineers for various reasons.
If you're a software engineer, it is to your advantage to network with good friends and occasionally compare salaries and total compensation. As my experience above illustrates, once in awhile you need a reality check or you might find that you've been systematically under-valuing yourself, an easily corrected situation in today's market. The secrecy around salaries only works to hurt talented employees who might not know what they are really worth. If you find yourself underpaid by more than 10 or 15 percent, it might be time to see what kind of a raise the market will give you.
The irony, of course is that Reed Hastings himself was a top notch software engineer when he started his first company, Pure Software. He took the proverbial second mortgage, and contracted as a consultant while writing Purify in his basement. When Pure went public, Reed deserved every bit of the success he got, including wealth and the other opportunities which he took advantage of. However, not that many of his employees became fabulously wealthy (especially given Pure's later history).
I started working for Pure Software as my first job out of college (and later returned to Pure after a short and none-to-memorable stay in graduate school). Reed managed to get me to stay at Pure for a year (when I had pending admittance to several graduate schools) by giving me (what seemed to me) a huge sign-up bonus, so he knows exactly what it's like to dangle money in front of someone who would be a starving graduate student.
In any case, I returned to Pure after graduate school, and at one point shifted desks. I accidentally left my paystub in my desk, and a senior engineer (hint to fresh grads: make friends with senior engineers who are honest and will give you some mentoring) inherited the desk. He took a look at my paystub, and then came to me privately and said, "You're not getting paid enough." I then went and explored how much the market was willing to pay for an engineer of my caliber in 1995, and discovered to my surprise that I could get a raise of over 45%, along with more stock options from an internet startup (the startup went on to a lucrative IPO before the 2001 bust). I took the job and never looked back. Software companies that under-value their engineers don't last long, and sure enough, Pure Software started bleeding talent soon after, and was eventually acquired by Rational and then IBM.
So as far as I'm concerned, the problem with the software industry isn't that of overpaying engineers as much as corporations systematically under-valuing engineering talent. Less than 1% of the population is capable of becoming good software engineers, and most of those people don't become software engineers for various reasons.
If you're a software engineer, it is to your advantage to network with good friends and occasionally compare salaries and total compensation. As my experience above illustrates, once in awhile you need a reality check or you might find that you've been systematically under-valuing yourself, an easily corrected situation in today's market. The secrecy around salaries only works to hurt talented employees who might not know what they are really worth. If you find yourself underpaid by more than 10 or 15 percent, it might be time to see what kind of a raise the market will give you.
Coast to Coast Trip Planning
1. St. Bees Head to Ennerdale Bridge (14 miles)
2. Ennerdale Bridge to Barrowdale (14.5 miles)
3. Barrowdale to Grasmere (9 miles, 2 night stay)
4. Grasmere to Patterdale (9 miles, 2 night stay)
5. Patterdale to Shap (16 miles)
6. Shap to Orton (8 miles)
7. Orton to Kirby Stephen (13 miles)
8. Kirby Stephen to Keld (13 miles)
9. Keld to Reeth (11 miles)
10. Reeth to Richmond (10.5 miles)
11. Richmond To Danby Wiske (14 miles)
12. Danby Wiske to Ingleby Cross (9 miles)
13. Ingleby Cross to Blakeley Ridge (21 miles)
14. Blakeley Ridge to Grosmont (13. 5 miles)
15. Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay (15.5 miles)
Longest day is 21 miles, which I think is quite doable considering how flat it would be.
2. Ennerdale Bridge to Barrowdale (14.5 miles)
3. Barrowdale to Grasmere (9 miles, 2 night stay)
4. Grasmere to Patterdale (9 miles, 2 night stay)
5. Patterdale to Shap (16 miles)
6. Shap to Orton (8 miles)
7. Orton to Kirby Stephen (13 miles)
8. Kirby Stephen to Keld (13 miles)
9. Keld to Reeth (11 miles)
10. Reeth to Richmond (10.5 miles)
11. Richmond To Danby Wiske (14 miles)
12. Danby Wiske to Ingleby Cross (9 miles)
13. Ingleby Cross to Blakeley Ridge (21 miles)
14. Blakeley Ridge to Grosmont (13. 5 miles)
15. Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay (15.5 miles)
Longest day is 21 miles, which I think is quite doable considering how flat it would be.
A full rainbow...
We had a full rainbow this morning from the apartment window. It was one of those days that made you feel like sleeping in, but the rainbow made getting up early worthwhile.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
A little about you
I turned on Google Analytics on this blog a few weeks ago when it became a publicly available service, and now that it's been running abit, I can share a few titbits with you, my readers, about you, my readers.
Over the course of a week, I get about 341 visitors, totalling about 486 page views. About 95% of you are first time visitors, and 5% of you are prior visitors (which really surprised me --- I would think that most of the visitors would be friends of mine, but maybe friends of mine only read my blog through RSS feeds).
Of the 341 visitors, 183 come from a search (google or otherwise), 133 come from a referral, and 25 directly typed http://piaw.blogspot.com or through an e-mail reader click.
The current top keyword for that hits this blog is "memoirs of a geisha controversy", which surprised the heck out of me! For a while, it was "buffy the chosen collection". This blog has posts that are ranked fairly highly by Google for those queries so I shouldn't be surprised.
9 visitors also found this site by typing "christian" into google. This is really wierd, since I'm not even in the top 100 entries returned by Google. What this suggests to me is that a lot of people search for "christian", and some small percentage of those guys are pretty darn persistent!
7 visitors found this blog via "fuji team sl". I'm one of the top results ranked on Google for this, so it's not too surprising, but for those of you who come here for that, let me assure you that my Fuji Team SL is still serving me fine, and I still love that bike and look forward to many more miles.
Most visitors to this blog (186) come from the U.S. The next category (38 visitors) don't have their geo-location set. Canada and the UK form the next big blocks of users (25 and 16 respectively), and after that we're into the noise with mostly non-English speaking countries.
Not unsurprisingly, 52% of you use Internet Explorer, but a full 36% of visitors use Firefox. I suspect that these numbers don't reflect the overall internet, and users that find my blog tend to be more sophisticated than the average internet user. 84% of you use Windows, 9% Macintosh, and 7% Linux. I wonder how many of that 7% came from internal to Google.
I'm very pleased to see that 32-bit color users comprise a full 80% of my visitors. That means effort put into scanning high resolution photos won't be wasted!
In any case, I'm very happy with the numbers I'm getting from Google analytics, and it'll be interesting to revisit this next year and see how the composition of my visitors have changed. I'm not really interested in this blog as a commercial outlet, but clearly, it seems like my audience will be mostly cyclists, not a bad thing at all!
One slightly disappointing item to me is that my book reviews see almost no traffic. But then again, I know that Larry and Scarlet both read my book reviews, so I will keep writing them.
Over the course of a week, I get about 341 visitors, totalling about 486 page views. About 95% of you are first time visitors, and 5% of you are prior visitors (which really surprised me --- I would think that most of the visitors would be friends of mine, but maybe friends of mine only read my blog through RSS feeds).
Of the 341 visitors, 183 come from a search (google or otherwise), 133 come from a referral, and 25 directly typed http://piaw.blogspot.com or through an e-mail reader click.
The current top keyword for that hits this blog is "memoirs of a geisha controversy", which surprised the heck out of me! For a while, it was "buffy the chosen collection". This blog has posts that are ranked fairly highly by Google for those queries so I shouldn't be surprised.
9 visitors also found this site by typing "christian" into google. This is really wierd, since I'm not even in the top 100 entries returned by Google. What this suggests to me is that a lot of people search for "christian", and some small percentage of those guys are pretty darn persistent!
7 visitors found this blog via "fuji team sl". I'm one of the top results ranked on Google for this, so it's not too surprising, but for those of you who come here for that, let me assure you that my Fuji Team SL is still serving me fine, and I still love that bike and look forward to many more miles.
Most visitors to this blog (186) come from the U.S. The next category (38 visitors) don't have their geo-location set. Canada and the UK form the next big blocks of users (25 and 16 respectively), and after that we're into the noise with mostly non-English speaking countries.
Not unsurprisingly, 52% of you use Internet Explorer, but a full 36% of visitors use Firefox. I suspect that these numbers don't reflect the overall internet, and users that find my blog tend to be more sophisticated than the average internet user. 84% of you use Windows, 9% Macintosh, and 7% Linux. I wonder how many of that 7% came from internal to Google.
I'm very pleased to see that 32-bit color users comprise a full 80% of my visitors. That means effort put into scanning high resolution photos won't be wasted!
In any case, I'm very happy with the numbers I'm getting from Google analytics, and it'll be interesting to revisit this next year and see how the composition of my visitors have changed. I'm not really interested in this blog as a commercial outlet, but clearly, it seems like my audience will be mostly cyclists, not a bad thing at all!
One slightly disappointing item to me is that my book reviews see almost no traffic. But then again, I know that Larry and Scarlet both read my book reviews, so I will keep writing them.
Billionaire Investors start paying attention to peak oil
For the past few months he's been holed up in hard-core research mode—reading books, academic studies, and, yes, blogs. Every morning he rises before dawn at one of his houses in Texas or South Carolina or California (he actually owns a piece of Pebble Beach Resorts) and spends four or five hours reading sites like LifeAftertheOilCrash.net or DieOff.org, obsessively following links and sifting through data. How worried is he? He has some $500 million of his $2.5 billion fortune in cash, more than ever before.
It does seem strange that if you believe an oil-induced crash is coming you wouldn't be invested heavily in oil stocks. Then again, if I was heavily invested in oil stocks, I wouldn't tell Fortune magazine, either, unless I was looking for a quick cash out.
It does seem strange that if you believe an oil-induced crash is coming you wouldn't be invested heavily in oil stocks. Then again, if I was heavily invested in oil stocks, I wouldn't tell Fortune magazine, either, unless I was looking for a quick cash out.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Yajie at Windy Hill Summit
Yajie asked me why I turn on the flash when shooting during the day, and ironically, this photograph provides an excellent example. The sun was shining from the right, which would have created dark shadows along the left side of her face in this picture. The fill flash from the camera lit up the side of her face enough to provide definition (without over-powering it), while also giving us a little bit of fill-light in her eye to liven it up a bit. This technique works well on both people and animals.
Artist's Light
Looking South from Windy Hill OSP, you can see ridge after ridge. The little bit of haze today gave it a dreamy feeling.
View of the Pacific from Windy Hill OSP
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is one of several spots along the coast where you can see the Ocean and the Bay at the same time. (The others being Russian Ridge and Black Mountain summit)It wasn't as clear today as it was yesterday, but it was still beautiful.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
The Beautiful South
I've been listening a lot to Carry on Up the Charts recently. The lyrics are cynical, and not the typical love song pop that you hear, but it's coupled with very listenable, peppy music which sounds really good. They are very much worth a listen for those of you who actually pay attention to the lyrics of a song: the duet, "A little time", is worth the price of the entire album.
Strangely enough, when searching for information about the band, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy provided the best data.
Strangely enough, when searching for information about the band, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy provided the best data.
View from Kings Mountain Road
I neglected to shoot a picture of this last week. The haze is probably smog from the windless days we've had recently. The Bay Area has great air quality only because the ocean wind usually blows it inland to Fresno and Sacramento valleys. With an off-shore flow the last couple of days that hasn't been happening.
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