After giving it considerable thought and trying to figure out how to fit regular blogging into my schedule; I have decided to put this blog on indefinite hiatus.
My new career is just taking too much time and my personal life makes late evening blogging more than a little difficult. Since building a regular readership is hard enough when you are posting daily I can't justify maintaining this particular blog. And anyways, it clears up a spot on Kip's Elite Eleven for something that is going to provide more value.
I appreciate the blogging relationship that I have established with many of you and I hope that you can follow me to Degrees of Freedom where I will continue to blog occasionally as long as they will have me.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Making Room At The Top
Every libertarian seems to have his blind spots, mine very well may be stem cell research, Coyote's seems to be Ivy League Schools.
This argument makes little sense to me. The value in Ivy League schools is that they are the top schools, not that they provide the best education - though that may be a by-product.
If this top tier of schools accepts 1% of the students then expanding admissions to the top 2% of students only diffuses the benefits that the top students would have otherwise had. If there really are more people that are "Ivy League ready" then the market will produce a tier of colleges that are perceived as nearly Ivy League in quality. Its fine if Yale, Princeton and others want to accept more students to make more money or provide other benefits to their students it isn't going to produce any value to society as a whole.
Its the same for secondary education as a whole, it was perceived that you had to go to college to succeed so we started sending everyone to college. Now that the signal is gone - college is no longer a signal of excellence - the very ambitious need to get advanced degrees to differentiate themselves.
Which leads me to my main point -- the Ivy League needs to find a way to increase capacity. The number of kids that are "ivy-ready" has exploded over the last decades, but the class sizes at Ivy schools have remained flat. For years I have been campaigning at Princeton for this, and I am happy to see they are increasing the class size, but only by a small amount.
This argument makes little sense to me. The value in Ivy League schools is that they are the top schools, not that they provide the best education - though that may be a by-product.
If this top tier of schools accepts 1% of the students then expanding admissions to the top 2% of students only diffuses the benefits that the top students would have otherwise had. If there really are more people that are "Ivy League ready" then the market will produce a tier of colleges that are perceived as nearly Ivy League in quality. Its fine if Yale, Princeton and others want to accept more students to make more money or provide other benefits to their students it isn't going to produce any value to society as a whole.
Its the same for secondary education as a whole, it was perceived that you had to go to college to succeed so we started sending everyone to college. Now that the signal is gone - college is no longer a signal of excellence - the very ambitious need to get advanced degrees to differentiate themselves.
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Monday, November 27, 2006
Lost My Lunch
There are dangers to reading blogs while on a lunch break - sometimes you read stuff like this:
He is a hack that will sell out any ideal in order to get elected, which, again to be fair, is what all politicians do. Unfortunately, he plays the populist card a bit too strong for my tastes.
one can use Bayes theorem to evaluate the conditional election prospects of various Presidential candidates for 2008.If you have read my blog for any amount of time you would realize that I'm not much of an Obama fan. Though, to be fair, he is one of the better Democratic politicians currently in Congress.
...
Based on the most recent transaction prices, here is what you learn about the conditional probabilities:
Obama 88 percent
...
The market suggests that Obama would be the strongest candidate if nominated.
He is a hack that will sell out any ideal in order to get elected, which, again to be fair, is what all politicians do. Unfortunately, he plays the populist card a bit too strong for my tastes.
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Friday, November 24, 2006
Help Fill My Stocking
If anyone has any of those worthless shares of Google floating around you can send them to me. I love giving my kids gag gifts at Christmas.
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A Rose By Any Other Name
Microsoft is so afraid of pissing people off that they resort to all kinds of naming shenanigans to attempt to hide the truth.
This is not going to work though; the people that this is supposed to really affect - software pirates - will find hacks to kill the kill switch. Which leaves you with legitimate users irritated by "features" that are only intended to irritate. Meanwhile, Microsoft has to staff up help desks to deal with this nuisance.
Fortunately, this type of shenanigan is going to be short-lived. Software installed on computers isn't long for this world. Just look at the gaming industry - the big games all have an online component which is (nearly) impossible to pirate. The software industry will follow-suit - you only have to look as far as Microsoft's aquisition of Softricity to see where the future is heading.
You will buy software that only installs some of the bits on your computer - the rest will be online somewhere and you will have to log into the application to turn it on. This is good for all sorts of reasons that I may blog about later, but the good news for now is DRM/copy protection and all the headaches it involves, isn't long for this world.
As reporters discovered yesterday, a Microsoft Knowledgebase article updated just last week described RFM for Office 2007 as disabling a user's ability to create new documents, edit existing documents or to save documents edited within the suite, though the user can open existing documents and print them. Reports have stated this updated document is evidence that Microsoft, contrary to prior statements, is building a "kill switch" into Office, and perhaps into Windows Vista as well.Call it a freaking kill-switch - who cares? It's your product, if people do not want to activate it you are fully within your rights to turn off functionality.Microsoft yesterday afternoon rejected the characterization of RFM as a "kill switch," citing that RFM does not completely disable Office. But reporters have counter-argued, if you can't save and you can't edit, that's as good as killing it, isn't it? The ensuing argument is starting to take on the characteristics of Monty Python's classic "Dead Parrot Sketch." Is Office dead, or is it just resting?
This is not going to work though; the people that this is supposed to really affect - software pirates - will find hacks to kill the kill switch. Which leaves you with legitimate users irritated by "features" that are only intended to irritate. Meanwhile, Microsoft has to staff up help desks to deal with this nuisance.
Fortunately, this type of shenanigan is going to be short-lived. Software installed on computers isn't long for this world. Just look at the gaming industry - the big games all have an online component which is (nearly) impossible to pirate. The software industry will follow-suit - you only have to look as far as Microsoft's aquisition of Softricity to see where the future is heading.
You will buy software that only installs some of the bits on your computer - the rest will be online somewhere and you will have to log into the application to turn it on. This is good for all sorts of reasons that I may blog about later, but the good news for now is DRM/copy protection and all the headaches it involves, isn't long for this world.
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Monday, November 20, 2006
Where is the Bias
Commenting on a study that looks at gender differences in tenure Matt Yglesias is pretty confident on where the bias lies.
From a policy stand point things look pretty good. It is no business of the government whether or not women choose to emphasize family over profession - and don't let them fool you, it is a choice. The only solution would be to forbid people to work hard and that doesn't seem like a terribly efficient solution to me.
You say the gap is explained by "fertility decisions" I say it's explained by "structural sexism." Here, as in much of life, women and men are now allowed to compete on "equal" terms. The terms, however, were set up long ago -- by men -- before that was the case, operating under the implicit assumption that the competitors would be men who, if they had children, would have wives at home to take care of the children.I don't get it though. If men and women are, essentially, equal until one of them decides to work less in order to take care of kids then the bias is clearly not in the work place. The bias is in the home.
From a policy stand point things look pretty good. It is no business of the government whether or not women choose to emphasize family over profession - and don't let them fool you, it is a choice. The only solution would be to forbid people to work hard and that doesn't seem like a terribly efficient solution to me.
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Indispensable Stuff You Didn't Know You Needed
Our kids are going to look at pictures of all of our wires and wonder how we ever managed it all.
US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires.Coming up with the coolest idea that no one ever thought of before is the simplest way to become filthy, stinking rich. And for those of you keeping score at home - no government body would ever approve of research funding for this unless it was attached to a bomb or some device that could kill bad guys.
The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
I love capitalism!
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The Boy That Cried Wolf
Accusing someone of censorship is a serious charge. It's probably a good idea to make sure that someone is actually engaging in censorship before accusing them of it.
Verizon customers can still get to the websites in question, Verizon has just decided they do not want to enter into business with this particular customer.
Whether you think their reasons are justified or not, this is not censorship and the net neutrality crowd needs to get its story straight.
In October, a U.S. vigilante group asked Verizon to cut off Net access to Epifora, a Canadian ISP that hosts a number of (entirely legal) web sites offering support to minor-attracted adults. Shortly thereafter, Verizon gave 30 days notice to Epifora, ending a 5 year relationship.Private companies deciding to terminate business relationships, regardless of the reasons, is not censorship.
Verizon customers can still get to the websites in question, Verizon has just decided they do not want to enter into business with this particular customer.
Whether you think their reasons are justified or not, this is not censorship and the net neutrality crowd needs to get its story straight.
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Who Would Have Thought?
Back in September chicken little was concerned about Wal-Mart throwing its weight around.
several weeks ago, in the midst of rumors that Apple was close to announcing a deal with Disney, Wal-Mart's David Porter - the executive responsible for stocking the retailer's shelves with DVDs and CDs and whose influence is so immense in Tinseltown that he's been named to Premiere magazine's annual power list - made the rounds of Hollywood studios.I claimed that the concern was just so much hooey. Wal-Mart only has as power over suppliers as they have ability to make said suppliers money. Let's fast forward and see who was right.
Disney continues to have success in selling movies through the iTunes Music Store, saying Thursday it had now sold about 500,000 films in just the first two months of operation. Consumers are downloading movies at rate of about 9,000 per day, generating about $4 million in revenue.Expect stories, any day now, about how Wal-Mart is 'putting it to' Disney by shipping unsold merchandise back.
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Whew
I think I've finally recovered from my 100 hour work week from hell (and I swear I'm not exagerating) and should return to something resembling a regular posting schedule.
And in my absense I picked up a co-blogging spot at Degress of Freedom. If I like it there and they like me I may move over full time, we'll just have to wait and see. But, for now I'll be posting in both locations.
And in my absense I picked up a co-blogging spot at Degress of Freedom. If I like it there and they like me I may move over full time, we'll just have to wait and see. But, for now I'll be posting in both locations.
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