Idiotsyncrasies

He Was Only Quoting A Nobel Prize Economist

2011-09-16T08:13:00.001-04:00

Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation takes more out than it put in. Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today's young may well get less than they put in).

~~Rick Perry~~
~~Some Evil Republican~~
Paul Krugman

Philip Rivers vs. Dan Fouts

2011-08-05T19:14:00.001-04:00

Here’s one for the casual or not-so-casual Chargers homer.

Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union Tribune offers up the opinion that Philip Rivers has already taken the mantle of greatest Chargers quarterback ever… over Dan Fouts. Although I’m not a Canepa fan this is an opinion I started to hold back in 2006. Not necessarily that Rivers was already the best Chargers QB ever but, when the dust had settled, we (that is, you the Chargers homer and myself) would look back on the respective careers of these two fine gentlemen and conclude the Rivers was the better QB, overall.

This doesn’t settle so well for those who look back misty-eyed at the Air Coryell era. When asking for commentary on the article from a fellow friend and Chargers homer I’d have to classify his reaction as a tiger who just had a stick poked in his cage. Now comparing two athletes playing in the same position in two different eras is always a challenge, but my friend said that I could compare Fouts’ golden years (1979 – 1981) with any three years from Philip Rivers and it wouldn’t be close.

Well, I somewhat agree with my friend except I think the scales are tilted solidly in Rivers’ favor.

(From NFL.com. Click for full size.)

On WikiLeaks

2010-12-10T11:56:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not just trying to cash in on traffic from this search. But I do have an opinion here, and I wanted to share it.

I have been reading about the retaliation by hacker groups (Anonymous taking lots of credit there) who seem to be targeting those who would quiet WikiLeaks in any way. While I do agree that the site has damaged the US and the operators should be punished, I wholeheartedly disagree with commercial entities stepping in. Are you listening, Visa and Amazon?

This is a political matter, and you need to stay the hell out of it. This is new ground for many laws, so let the case be set out publicly in full understanding, and let the legal system be upgraded to handle it.

As for the hackers themselves, they have an opportunity to show restraint and still get the message across. I like this bit scoured from the web:

"We are replacing operation #payback with operation #payitforward. Hackers, please perform random acts of kindness."

This could be a great PR move, but must also be matched by governmental restraint along with open discussion. The concept at play here is how to deal with sensitive information. What's become apparent in the news is that the information released has more to do with interaction and personal tactics. The lesson for the government is to understand that the public servants need to learn a little more professionalism

That being said, if you stifle an individual's ability to share their opinion privately, you are losing much of the value of that person in making decisions. There needs to be a venue for off-the-record discussions (so, don't record them, perhaps?). Of course that flies in the face of appropriate documentation. What to do, what to do...?

Here's what I see at the moment, though I admit I have not gone hunting too much: Assange is a dick for supporting the illegal dissemination of sensitive information. Manning is a bigger dick for doing it in the first place (treason in a time of war, but not of the executable variety) this time around. The problem from the government side is releasing info to the wild does not automatically declassify it. But through Executive Order, members of the gov't (i.e., anyone authorized to handle classified info in this case) are not allowed to comment on whether something is truly classified, to what level, or what impact the release may have.

That means WikiLeaks can't legally be shut down without some serious dancing as to why and specifically what might be classified. But, the Feds should have authority to shut down the site so long as there is appropriate public justification and a closed court record. What should NEVER happen in a case like this is business getting involved without direct Federal oversite, again with legal consent. And the citizenry (global, in this case) should strive to demonstrate its power by being reasonable but firm

This is indeed sticky.

Solved: iTunes Home Sharing Problem

2010-06-10T18:36:00.001-04:00

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was wrestling with an issue where iTunes home sharing between my two Vista computers would not work properly. All the computers were signed in using the same account and they appeared in the other computer’s “Shared” list in iTunes. However, when clicking on the computer in the list the computer would briefly disappear with its home share icon and then reappear with a regular sharing icon. If I clicked on it again it would disappear altogether until the next time I rebooted iTunes.

I wasn’t the only person having this problem and I had gone through a few steps to try to diagnose the issue. I could get home sharing to work with another PC in the house running XP, and I could get it running with the server in the basement running Windows Server 2003. Vista machines seemed to be able to home share with other machines as long as they weren’t running Vista.

And then a (not-so) funny thing happened. The wireless connection on my laptop stopped working... at least it stopped working properly. It would connect with the router and get an IP address and report that everything was happy, but it couldn’t connect to anything else (the entire internet, for instance). After diagnosing that for a while I found out that it was the NCP Universal IPSec Client I am using (the reason I’m using it documented here). After uninstalling it the network connection started working again. I reinstalled the client and the network connection continued to work, so I thought nothing of it.

Until it did it again a few weeks later. I uninstalled the client from my laptop and left it uninstalled as I was away from the house and didn’t have time to go download it and reinstall. Some time later I was using iTunes on the laptop at home and for ha-ha’s clicked on the name of my desktop PC. Voila, it worked and I started copying songs and playlists from the desktop PC iTunes to my laptop. On a hunch I reinstalled the NCP IPSec client and home sharing stopped working again.

I have a few other scenarios to try, but for the time being, for the 3 or 4 people on the internet who may run into this issue, try uninstalling your IPSec client (be it Cisco’s, NPC’s or somebody else’s) if your iTunes home sharing doesn’t work.

Non Sequitor

2010-03-03T00:41:00.001-05:00

Herein lies the definition of the phrase “non-sequitor” summed up in an online advertisement.

How About Being Personally Responsible?

2010-02-20T11:41:00.001-05:00

Healthbolt on sex addiction:

Sex Addiction. It's considered an actual problem, enough that there are sex addiction “clinics” and sex addiction treatments. I have an idea. How about we take responsibility for our actions and leave the word “addiction” to serious and real issues, like drug addiction.
Someone who wants a lot of sex is just that. Someone who wants a lot of sex. There's no physical problem that occurs if they don't have sex. There's no mental breakdown if they don't have sex. They just don't have it. They may feel sorry for themselves that they're not getting it, but it's not like their body is going to fall apart because they have to be celibate for a few hours.
But, in our society, which these days doesn't seem to want people to accept responsibility for their actions, has deemed that this is something we can't control either. We now have sex addicts.

2010-01-04T20:05:00.001-05:00

Let the beatings continue!

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T08:57:00.001-05:00

New year, new attitude at the Vickers residence.

It's... Magic

2009-11-04T11:29:00.001-05:00

Behold, the PrintBrush. A hand-sized printer that prints by manually “brushing” the printer back and forth on a surface.

Here’s to hoping this device is real and becomes available in the not-too-distant future.

The Bay Bridge Crack

2009-10-31T13:11:00.001-04:00

For the nerdophiles, an article explaining the issue with the San Francisco bay bridge, the kludge put in place to fix it, and the resulting failure.

My Wife the DBA

2009-09-26T12:07:00.001-04:00

My wife received an ad email yesterday to which she is subscribed. The first line was:

Lori, you asked to be reminded about ERROR: Invalid row index '1' for SQL 'data' function on tag 'offerlist'.

I did not know she was moving in on my territory.

Confucious Say...

2009-08-11T17:22:00.001-04:00

...pahaps you like reconsiduh yoosing new search enzhine.

Why You Should Be Watching Big Bang Theory, Part I

2009-05-09T23:34:00.003-04:00

For those who don't watch, Sheldon is the tall, skinny, nerdy guy who is smarter than everyone on the planet and knows it. He has a superiority complex and is a germophobe. Did I mention nerdy? Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, computer games, etc.

Leonard (aka David from "Rosanne") is Sheldon's room mate. He is also very smart but a little more street smart than Sheldon. Sheldon and Leonard work together in the science laboratory at the local university.

Penny is the girl who lives across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon in the apartment complex. She is an aspiring actress and is very much NOT a rocket scientist. She works at a Applebees-ish restaurant. She and Leonard dated briefly.

In this episode Penny has made it known that she has bought Christmas gifts for Sheldon and Leonard. Sheldon has a fit because of the implied reciprocity and has dragged another two of his pals (Howard and Rajesh) to a foofy store to buy a gift for Penny. Not knowing what type of gift Penny is getting for him he is unsure how much he should spend on the gift.

He devises a plan that should allow him exchange a gift appropriate and commensurate with the gift he will receive from Penny -- he will purchase several gifts of varying value. Once he receives his gift he'll feign intestinal difficulties... when he returns from his business he'll bring back the appropriately valued gift for Penny.

The Internet Inside An Operating System Inside the Internet

2009-04-14T07:27:00.001-04:00

G.ho.st, an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a spinach tortilla.

New Tech Blog

2009-03-11T18:06:00.001-04:00

Howdy.

I've fired up another blog to cover my fabulous adventures in nerdville. The ramblings there will be related to stuff I'm doing for my business, so it's hosted on my business site -- http://www.lpsol.com/blog. It's called PathLight, and I'll probably start off with moving some nerdy posts from here over to there when I get a chance. For the three people who read this, if you are technically inclined please consider bookmarking me over yonder.

Scott and I have been discussing the method by which this blog will be blown up and reconstituted. Me not having a science degree and all, I'm thinking dynamite because I can understand the process of lighting a fuse with a match. Scott is probably considering something involving the splitting of atoms.

In any event, eventually I'd like to post stuff here (for myself) that is more substantial and essay-like than stupid stuff -- like blogging about blogging.

Something I Had To Read Twice To Believe

2008-12-22T23:03:00.001-05:00

Officers at the Phoenix police department have been requesting permission to purchase and carry their own semi-automatic weapons for use in the line of duty. It seems that budgetary issues kept them from keeping up with the firepower on the street. You'll never guess who stepped up to the plate to help out:

An unexpected Christmas donation from actor David Spade is expected to provide Phoenix police with enough money to buy an additional 50 semi-automatic rifles for patrol officers in 2009.
The $100,000 gift announced Monday means as many as 300 officers could soon be armed with Bushmaster AR-15s, even in light of recent debates between police and union officials about the availability of the high-powered weapons during the city's ongoing budget strife.

That brings a tear to my eye -- a member of the entertainment elite materially contributing to the cause of improved weaponry for law enforcement. David Spade, you are the man.

A Stimulus Idea For the Economy

2008-11-23T20:11:00.001-05:00

I just watched Andy Rooney kvetch about retailers wanting to skip right over Thanksgiving so they can get the retail Christmas season going, noting that some retailers realize about thirty percent of their annual sales during the Christmas run.

May I suggest to president-elect Obama that he install a quarterly Christmas in the calendar year to shake dollars loose from consumers into the economy?

FIX IT -- Oscar Rogers for Finance Czar

2008-11-01T22:39:00.007-04:00

Well, I can't say this is an official endorsement of this blog since I haven't spoken to Scott about it, but I'm confident he'll agree. Maybe.

Anywhoo, this election season please consider writing in Oscar Rogers for finance czar. I think you'll agree that his straight forward, no-bs plan for fixing our economy speaks for every person who has been victimized by our recent economic downturn.

RIP: Global Warming

2008-10-20T23:12:00.001-04:00

Now, on tap, 30 years of global cooling:

An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ... This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number."

A Picture Worth A Trillion Dollars

2008-10-10T08:01:00.000-04:00

This cartoon sums it up just nicely.

One Simple Request For Google Calendar

2008-10-08T13:39:00.001-04:00

Activate the letter "g" on the keyboard. A little window pops open like when you hit the letter "q" for Quick Add. There's one little field in the popup, and that's to enter a date. When you hit return, the calendar goes to that date.

You're welcome, google. Now get on it.

The Bailout Isn't Really A Bailout?

2008-09-29T17:19:00.003-04:00

I just read this blog post [1] by somebody who sounds like they know what they are talking about [2] and... well, the fundamentals of the original "bailout bill" do not sound as poisonous to libertarian ideology as I thought it would. In essence the bill was supposed to act like a giant "reset button" and doesn't actually bail anybody out. In fact, the institutions holding on to sub-prime mortgage securities will actually still take a (major) hit selling those securities to the US Treasury. The question, I guess, is how does the Treasury figure out what to pay for these crap loans?

The ultra-crapified version that is failing in the House right now is the one with all the contingencies attached to it -- the ability for judges to rewrite the terms of a loan so the mortgage payer can keep the house regardless of who gets stuck with the bill, government ownership of banks, caps on executive pay, etc. You know, socialism [3].

[1] Tilt your head -- the author leans right a bit.
[2] It was published on the internet and therefore has to be true. Right?

[3] You know the saying -- first socialism, then communism, then alchoholism.

Good Riddance

2008-09-08T09:04:00.001-04:00

Wow, Olbermann and Matthews are gone as news anchors from MSNBC. I guess we'll no longer hear about anything furrowing up anybody's leg when Obama gives a speech.

Al Gore On His Mission In Global Warming

2008-09-02T08:44:00.001-04:00

From the department of redundancy department:

"One of the many complexities that complicate the task I've undertaken is complexity."

First the Nobel, and with eloquence like that a Pulitzer is sure to follow.

hellotxt: I Recant

2008-08-27T10:47:00.001-04:00

I tried hellotxt for awhile and for the first week or so liked it, until I really started trying to use it and found it to be quite buggy. Wouldn't connect to Facebook after being able to previously. Wouldn't remove services after I told it to. Wouldn't send the status via email. Would not interpret a line break from email with a space (so your update looks like it was typed by a fifth grader). Sorry, but my attention span is just too short to put up with that.

My new status-updater best buddy is ping.fm. You can sign up for the beta and receive an invitation within a few days. It updates all the major social networks and works fairly quickly. It has an AIM bot you can route your status updates through. It updates your statuses/statii/whatever within seconds. It even has command directives where you can send different updates to different services by prepending the sentence with a code corresponding to the particular service. Sweet.

The only thing it's missing is direct SMS support. You can get around this by sending an SMS/MMS to your assigned email address for updating on ping.fm, but it would be nice to have direct support.