Recession follow up

In keeping with my earlier post about the economy... here is a forecast of the 2009 economic state, in video form:

CERN-mageddon

How would you like to be sued for bringing about the impending doom of mankind? The poor fellows over at CERN have been, according to this link via Slashdot. CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which has been working up the nerve to collide particles for a few years now, has been put on hold due to claims that it will rip a hole into the space-time continuum.

Good luck, hope you've got a good lawyer.

A life in charts 'n' graphs...

I firmly believe that as more of our lives deal in interactions with digital devices of whatever kind, and this results in excess recorded information, there will be unsuspected consequences. Specifically, once all this random and "unrelated" info is brought together for a person, it can make a great picture of who that person is. Nicholas Feltron's "Annual Report" is the sum of all the data he has collected about himself over the course of a year. Tying into my post about visualizing data from earlier this week, he has aggregated this info and put it down for the world to see in a collection of charts and graphs.

Most people have a tough time comprehending the overall trend of their lives. Its easy to worry about major catastrophes like plane crashes and murders, but the big killers such as over-eating and over-drinking can easily be ignored as they build up over time (check out this Schneier article on the Psychology of Security). If these were tracked for us (despite the privacy concerns... hopefully this would all be collected for our eyes only, not the insurance companies) and we could see how many calories we eat on an average day, or how many alcoholic beverages we drink, would this change our lifestyles? Similarly, we worry about major purchases like houses and cars while spending much more on evenings out and fast-food. It will some day be possible to collect all this information and let the individual "play" with it, in visual formats, to better understand it.

As a side-note, I bet this guy could get pretty annoying with some kind of notebook, marking down how many miles he traveled in a cab or how many photos he's taken on a given day.

...for Libraries

As a little follow-up to the book organizer thing: I was eavesdropping on a conversation between some Library Science students at school and they were talking about Seattle Public Library's new "tag cloud" and "read-alikes." Further discussion proved that these were in fact drawn from LibraryThing's "For Libraries" service. This service sells recommendation services, reviews, and user-defined tags to libraries, to help them improve on-site search.

Take a look at this example of Crime and Punishment, down on the bottom of the page you can see what they were talking about.

Anyway, the issue arose that LibraryThing doesn't make it super clear to its users that they are farming out this info they've just uploaded. In fact, the user is paying a fee to be a part of the site, so they wondered if there should be a kick back involved? As someone who just cataloged their collection, I don't really object to it, since you're making the information public and hoping it will be used by putting it on the site.

What do you think?

Recession for college grads

I saw a bit on CNN about how veterans have been having a tough time finding jobs post-military. The big run up was "it's not for the reason you think!" In the end, the reason they "uncovered" was that employers have developed a negative stigma against veterans because of all the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the news. It used to be if there were two equivalent applicants, and one of them was in the military, the military thing would be a sort of leg up on the other guy. Now its the other way, according to this CNN story, because the employer would "rather just not deal with all that."

I couldn't find the link on their site, but I did find this interesting story: you might think that because its a recession there are fewer jobs and hiring has cut way back. On the contrary, the recession has caused companies to scale back their higher-priced employees, forcing even more of the baby-boomer generation into retirement. These companies still need workers, and so they look to the recent college graduates as a sort of bottom-of-the-barrel deal. Sounds promising for those of us running through college (which will hopefully circumvent the first bit of this post). On the down side, though, if you look at the list of companies that are planning on hiring the most recent college grads this year? Walgreens, Enterprise Rent A Car, and Progressive Insurance. I have to wonder how many of these jobs are really terrible ones with no room for promotion? The sort of jobs that a high school grad would've been doing 15 years ago?

Finally, something else I noticed which is a nice trend. CNN.com has a link on their video section to "live video." This pops up a browser of the various live feeds that are going on at the moment. When I tuned in, there was a speech by Hiliary Clinton in NC, another by Bill Clinton in PA, and some trial going on. Also, you have the option of watching the live headlines. This is nice for people who might not have TV but would like to get a little bit of national news, especially when speeches or events are happening. Usually the major networks won't air the longer live news feeds. And, as I write this, another feed is added to watch a live gold course fire in Cleveland... don't mind if I do.

Data visualization

Ever since I saw a guy named Jeff Heer come to UW and talk about some of the challenges of data visualization, I've kept my eye out for good examples. The problem being, not every piece of data can be thrown up in some kind of bar graph or pie chart and be instantly clear. The guy who came was one of the people who created the name visualizer. This is a fun thing that made the rounds on the net a while ago where you can compare how common different names are over different years. A fun example: type in Adolph and see the popularity magically declines in the '30s. Hm. Or note how girls names beginning in vowels saw a huge dip in popularity but a recent resurgence. Point being, what are new ways to look at old data to "tease out the meaning"?

This is what I was thinking about when I saw a recent visualization in the New York Times showing movies and their grosses. Its not quite as interactive as the first link, but you can scroll across 20 years. Here, you can see the evolution of the summer and Christmas box-office bulge. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer movies seem to make up significant portions of the bulges. Its an interesting way to see the data, and if more raw data were interactive and displayed intuitively, it would be a way to rally the "information-overload" of our age into meaningful info.

Deadly combination?

If you combine some cheap pool and reasonably priced beers at Teddy's Tavern (where they don't seem to mind if you bring in some food)...


View Larger Map

...with some of the best burgers in Seattle at Primo Burger right across the street


View Larger Map

You're pretty much guaranteed a good time. Enough said.

(Really just wanted to try out the embedded Google Maps)

Money... Recessions

So, we were talking about what to do if you have a small surplus of dollars. This has become especially difficult, given all the gloom and doom talk of recessions and everything. Lifehacker linked to a thread about what is the smartest thing to do with money given the uncertainty of the market. This got me thinking about the options that are available...

Our idea was that was should perhaps try to invest "fake" dollars into some stocks, mutual funds, or what have you, for a month and see who can take $1,000 (or maybe $10k) the furthest given any options. An important caveat, I think, would be to include fees for buying, selling, and maintaining an account with which ever online stock site we choose (I only know of etrade's rates, and they're not cheap when dealing with smaller volume trades). It seems like the best way to do this is to use either Google finance or Yahoo finance and create a "portfolio" and track it for a while. We would each have to tabulate separately the money that isn't currently represented by a stock, and the fees, etc, we have "spent." Is anyone up to this? I think it would be interesting.

Mesh WiFi Networks

An interesting article in Slashdot today about a company trying to bring mesh wifi networks as an alternative to the regular bridge type. The link they give is about the company, Meraki, and their iffy business model. (Namely, they sent out some open hardware, and then locked it down, and charge people to use their "dashboard" software).

I've always been a big fan of the concept of a mesh network. This is where each wifi node piggy-backs the signal of all neighboring nodes. This is a great way to spread the Internet to a neighborhood without having to wire up a bunch of cabling, etc. A big limitation in cities is that only the telecoms have authority to string up any kind of land wiring between buildings, across private and public property. Anyway, some of the comments pointed to the Open-Mesh solution, which uses open source software and sells the hardware for pretty reasonable prices. It would be nice to get my hands on a few of these and try them out. Check them out here for $50.

Criminalize open WiFi users?

An interesting article on ars technica about WiFi. There have been a couple court cases where people using another person's WiFi have been accused of "unauthorized access to a network." I really believe that using an open WiFi network isn't a criminal activity, but in Maryland they were trying to pass a specific law making it a criminal offense. Luckily it got shot down, but it may be the beginning of a pretty bad trend.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if it will become a sort of non-issue. WiFi hotspots will probably go the way of pay phones before long. The Internet will be so ubiquitous that there will be no reason to guard your little connection. Every phone, laptop, etc, will be hooked into satellites, towers, etc, for pretty cheap. I'm looking forward to it.

The value of Youtube

If you haven't been following the news, there is an interesting situation happening where the press is blaming Barack Obama for some of the race-charged speeches his pastor has given. He's been attending this guy's church for something like 20 years, so I guess the question is whether or not these are the same things he believes.

The real interesting part, though, is how the Internet is coming to play in the story. As the Web began to spread, most people were proclaiming this as a new era of commentary and news sources. As though, with a billion blogs, you'll be able to get any side of the story that you want. Now there are some recent stats saying that most people are getting their news from fewer and fewer online sources, as the masses pass around the same snippets from AP, CNN, Reuters, or whatever. Well, I'd almost say that the best trend of the Internet isn't the greater number of sources, its the fewer sources. What people really need is a way to all see the same original set of facts (although these might not always be possible to agree on). But with the advent of Youtube, we've all got access to the same set of Original Documents. You can read any number of commentaries on the amazing speech Obama gave yesterday, but people are increasingly showing that the power of the Original Document can speak for itself. Nearly three million people watching this rather long video in only a few days is pretty amazing. This is the only way that Americans will experience a collective understanding, rather than a collective dumbing down:





Note, meanwhile, that instead of listening to me saying that Barack's pastor (Jeremiah Wright) is saying some stuff, now you can just as easily hear it for yourself:



The Internet... good stuff.

Science on Tap

By the way, wanted to throw this out there. There is a regular thing called Science on Tap wherein you can go to a bar, in this case Third Place Pub, on the last Monday of the month and can hear a little talk by a scientist. Seems like an interesting thing, and the next one will be on the 31st. Anyone interested? For some more information, here is a Flickr photo set from one a few months ago.

Good reads... dot com?

Aside from its insidious title, Goodreads, (which can, alternatively, be read as goo dreads) stands to become my favorite waste of time, and for my benefit, I hope it shall for you, too. Presumably, the site is for social-networking- however scuttled that motive appears beneath its exterior of bibliophilia. Indeed, the premise of the site is that the user catalog their personal library as a requisite to finding other users with similar tastes, ostensibly to befriend them and get book recommendations, (read "try to fuck them"). Goodreads is preposterous, of course, unless the user is earnest in their love of books, and utilizes the resources on the site to find other books which pique their curiosity or raise their ire, based on previous, shared interests. Lamentably, this site doesn't have the best tools for that function; however another site Librarything has a remarkable ability to match-up people with similar tastes and ailments or what-have-you. The exception to Librarything is that it limits the number of books which can be cataloged to 200, unless the user elects the $10 per annum subscription, which to any bibliophile reeks of extortion. Therefore, a better deal indeed, is the gratis membership to Goodreads, which is intuitively simple to command and plentiful in its recommendations, though not without effort. I have taken the liberty to post a few others, though I cannot vouch for them.
With exception to anobii, (Anobium Punctatum- book worm, get it?) the appellation of these sites is positively insipid! And this from the so-called literate segment of our society? Horse-cock!

http://www.shelfari.com/ http://www.anobii.com/ http://www.bookjetty.com/

Word on the street, Scrubs will be coming back on April 10th to wrap up their 7th and final season on NBC. Meanwhile, in somewhat more surprising news, ABC will possibly bring the show over for an 8th season. A pretty unusual move, but I'd like to see it. ABC has only the one good show with Lost, so they can use the boost. According to the National Ledger, shooting could start on Monday, and the show starting next Fall. Nice.

Seen here, the Janitor performing a short-living stand-up routine in 1984:

Double standard?

Here's an interesting case surfacing from Ryerson University. They have a long tradition of study groups helping each other with their Engineering related homework, but then when a student started a Facebook group to swap tips (and homework answers...) he got slammed and nearly expelled (147 counts of cheating for the 147 students who visited the group). CNN.com reports that the school has only given him a zero on the assignment in question, allowing him to still pass the class.

The point here is: are things that you do online of an inherently different nature? If you gamble online, or have an affair online, some act as though its of less consequence. If you post answers or trade TV shows online (compared to a study group, or giving someone a VHS tape) its a more severe offense? The next few years I'm sure we'll see a proliferation of these gray areas being pressed into the forefront. A technology can't fundamentally change the way we interact without forcing a shift in our comfort zones and cultural standards...

Sweater Day

Today is Mr. Roger's 80th birthday (or would've been if he were still alive). Apparently, to promote all around feelings of well-being, people are being asked to wear their favorite sweater (the video on their site clearly says it doesn't have to have a zipper like Mr. Roger's did, it just has to be important to you... thanks Mr. McFeeley, for your leeway).

If you're wondering why Mr. Rogers is more than a crazy old guy with toys, you should check out his Wikipedia entry. He was a tireless crusader for all things worthwhile, and he wasn't even a religious wing nut. I wish there were more people like him today. Need more convincing? Watch his 1969 testimony for the Senate, basically turning them around to continue funding PBS, which remains an institution to this day.



Finally, talk of sweaters can only remind me of the famous mid-90's "red-hooded sweatshirt." I was going to link to the original SNL version, but then I found this absurd time-capsule-esque clip from a 1996 HBO special. What were we thinking back then? Have a good first day of Spring.

The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back (Revised Edition)

This got a lot of press at when it was compiled but I'm going to link to it here in the hopes that the message will spread. Fight, fight for your right to...not be screwed by mega international comglomerates. Or even local, meany-peeny good for nothings.

Robocop... Part one... Part deux

Kill me. Kill me now.

I can't wait for the RFID future

So another one from the lovely folks over at boingboing via their TV division (now with shitty verizon commercials). Xeni et al shows us how truly weak the security systems for the new radio frequency chips on passports and the "neat" touch and go credit cards is. I just love me some security theater.

Semicolon subway

Maybe every news article should be an introspective examination on the use of punctuation in mass transit? The New York Times surprisingly interesting story about the semicolon and its misuse.

How to look good...with extra trying

So here are some beautiful resumes that help one stand out from the pack. I'm going to try one or two of these little gems for myself.Good luck to the rest of you and lets remember, if you are going out for the same job as me, I'll stab you in the face. Ya really.

Yee hah! The brand new american-made, tent cities! Where do I sign up!

Welcome to the new hoover-ville, 30's era depression slums people. Boingboing.net points us toward a BBC article about the new sub-prime shanty towns. So fun, so grand, so very sad.

A series... Of tubes?

A fine little article about pneumatic tubes as people movers from the folk over at damninteresting.com, a haven of ridicoulus and fascinating stories. Give it a looksy.

Tesla... begins today

Only 900 cars are being made... wish I could get my hands on one.

War is... cool?

I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.
-GWB

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Chester Cheetah has turned into a real dick. Thats what I like to see...

New NIN...

A purely instrumental electronic album.