Obamacon

When I was really honest with myself, I couldn't honestly say Bob Barr would be a great leader.

From Early Voting 08

Here's to the Ron Paul Republicans of the future. Let's hope the current batch of so-called conservatives get the exodus they've earned.

Android on the Nokia N810

I wanna be like Joe!

I mostly followed this, but it didn't quite work as is. I think installing bzip2 separately and changing the android.sh to explicitly mount /media/mmc1/android.img did the trick, but I wasn't really keeping track of everything I did. (Don't forget to re-flash to Diablo first.)

Social networking for anti-social people

MySpace occupies a strange place in my Internet world. I like being able to get in touch with people I haven't talked to in a long time -- everyone is on MySpace -- but I hate feeling compelled to post public "comments" and respond the occasional person who feels slighted if they're not in my "top 8".

So, I've side-stepped the whole issue and made a profile that funnels communication into my normal email account, where it should be. Results here: http://www.myspace.com/obeyeater.

This also allows me to link directly to my picasaweb account and normal weblog, without using MySpace's amateur implementation of the same things. A little CSS goes a long way.

It doesn't take rocket appliances.

Dramatic Obama

Happy tax day!

Nearly 40% of my paycheck is withheld for taxation of some sort. That's fairly normal for the average income earner in the United States.

What about you? (Do you even know?) Do you have full confidence that a third (or more) of your paycheck is being spent responsibly by your government officials?

Some folks aren't concerned yet. At what point will they start taking notice? 60%? 70%?

Don't forget the taxes on other things. Like oh, you know, gasoline. And then there's everything else you buy.

This is important, and it's not necessarily a Democrat or Republican issue... so far, both parties have fucked it up pretty badly. This is the issue that will determine the fate of our economy, and most of us don't even think about it... because it happens before our checks get deposited in the bank.

Sweet dreams

I remember being a small child and watching that Eurythmics video for "Sweet Dreams" when it was popular.

Seeing as how I was a small child, with no real concept yet of what "normal" meant, I remember thinking there was nothing terribly unusual about those two people laying on the table while a cow circled around the room.

I saw it again today, and it struck me how bizarre the entire video is.

Was the whole 80s like that? Now that I think about it... I'm pretty sure it was.

The right to cheap text-books

Everybody knows school text-books are a complete rip-off. What to do? Involve congress! (This is, of course, the knee-jerk reaction of our present generation to most problems.)

If we really cared about this, we (not congress) would be holding the educational institutions themselves more accountable for providing quality online curricula, cheaper "unbundled" books, or perhaps we'd just take our tuition to those institutions that already do this sort of thing.

If we are too apathetic to do any of that... well, then it's probably not all that important to us, is it?

The first entrepreneur to comprehensively fulfill a University's needs for providing digital materials--significantly cutting students' costs in the process--is going to make lots of money. (At which point there will likely be a congressional hearing to call his salary into question.)

We, as a populace, still have the power to influence the conditions of our society without expecting Washington do it for us. Government regulation of things like this are almost always harmful to us in the long run.

Warning: view with caution.

This video depicts a group of US soldiers completely decimating a small group of children overseas.



Warning: strong, emotional content; shows kids getting served in graphic detail. Watch at your own risk.

Pirates and ninjas explained

This is great:

The ninja is a metaphor for the corporate employee. A ninja will get the job done or die trying. A ninja will kill everyone in his own family if he’s ordered to. A ninja has no sense of entitlement or dignity or flex time.

Meanwhile, the pirate is the entrepeneur, or maybe the upper-level executive. He has no sense of duty or honor. He seeks adventure and glory only. He’ll jump ship as soon as possible. He might even maroon his crew-mates on a desert island if it means he gets the treasure to himself.

Pirates love to hire ninjas because a ninja never disobeys. Ninjas love to kill pirates because they can pretend they’re killing their own pirate boss.

I've always aimed for a balance of both pirate and ninja characteristics, personally.

App Engine

I'm more excited about Google's App Engine than anything other G release in recent memory. I'm happy about the quick uptake from the public, too. This guy totally gets it.

Yar, sexy pirate.

Suggestive

I'm going to start embedding suggestive pictures of women in all of my posts, regardless of any possible relevance to the content.

(Why didn't I think of this before?)


[UPDATE - I decided to go back and re-fit some old posts with my new theme. I now love blogging.]

Gasoline and thievery

Drinking Alone + Internet Access = Blog Rant

With gas prices soaring, the issue of price-gouging is impacting us all quite visibly. (How was traffic today?)

What's slightly less visible on your TV is the profit margin of domestic oil companies. Consider Exxon, which currently has a profit margin in the ballpark of 11%. How does that rank when compared to the profit margins of other Fortune 500 companies? Top five? Top ten? Actually, if you look more closely, they only rank at 116th on the list.[1]

Your government, on the other hand, takes a combined total of around 45 cents in fuel taxation for every gallon of gasoline you buy. That means the current "tax margin" taken from gasoline is 14.2% (that's the current average combined tax of 46.9 cents for each gallon, which is now averaging $3.28 nationally.) A huge portion of that tax, about 40%, goes to earmarks that are completely unrelated to infrastructure, transportation, or alternative energy sources. The tax burden for diesel fuel is similar. (Reminder: diesel fuel hauls all those goods that make up the backbone of our economy.)

That is worth re-stating: our government already takes a much larger chunk of gasoline revenue than Exxon receives in return for its effort in producing the product.

And that's just what they take at the pump.

Here's an overview:

• Your government takes at least a third of the typical citizen's earnings before a pay-check is even printed... which tends to put a dent in purchasing power, to say the least.
• At every stage in the production of every domestic product, they confiscate an additional percentage, creating an embedded tax that's far higher than most Fortune 500 companies' profit margins.
• Then, when you the consumer go to buy a gallon of gas, you pay yet another tax... which, once again, is far more than what the oil company retains as profit.[2]

Government revenues from oil are far beyond the profits of Big Oil. And you think Washington leaders are concerned about our nation's oil dependence, eh? Ah, right, the carbon tax will fix this! (How very innovative of them!)

Naturally, the government has decided to get to the bottom of this mess by accusing oil companies of price-gouging. We, the stupid-ass citizens who voted them into office, fail to recognize any irony in that.

On a related note... statistically speaking, there's only a few more weeks left until you actually start earning money for keepsies this year! Yay!

Moral of the story

Our economy, in a fairly predictable near-future, is headed toward ruin (or at least a very nasty dark age) and it's because half of our wages are being cleverly funnelled into nebulous government programs. Many of these programs just feed the cycle and lull us into further dependence. If you're going to get angry about the way things are, then you owe it to yourself to get your priorities straight.

Have a nice day at work tomorrow! Keep earning that money!

[1] Profit margin ranking is from here, which is the ranking for '06. I'd run more recent numbers, but I'm tired and I'm just some random blogger person anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Besides, my cursory intarwebbing would indicate that their profit margin has actually gone significantly down since then. (If you want to run the profit margin rankings for the current figures, then please comment and I'll update this.)

[2] Those profits (which hardly stack up to the government's cut) accomplish things like fund the average Joe's pension plan, provide growth for mutual funds (think: 401K), and other healthy economic functions that benefit the common citizen. The popular perception of oil profits going mostly to pad some evil CEO's pocket is just a tool for political class warfare... a simple but effective manipulation of your vote. Sit back and watch as we all applaud further oil regulation, which will cripple the aforementioned healthy economic functions... at which point we'll all blame those evil price-gouging Big Oil bastards for causing a recession in our economy. (But, where did most of the money really go? Innumerable efforts such as this might give you a hint.)

Everything.

Thanks to Google Reader, I am now able to read everything on the web as soon as it is written. Everything. I do it in a fraction of the time I used to spend clicking through various web sites.

It seemed cool at first, but I'm pretty sure this is bad for me.

I'll take one of everything

Best use of a company bonus? Buy one of everything at Taco Bell, of course.

EATER No Brains

My dungeon shook and my chains fell off.

Two years ago, I made a commitment to free myself of consumer debt. Today, for the first time in my adult life, I am free!

I've been reading books about money even before I became an adult, but for some reason I still ended up with many, many thousands of dollars in credit card debt. What did attaining freedom finally boil down to? The simple stuff:

• Stop using credit cards. Completely. (No excuses.)


• Don't buy bullshit you don't need. A lot of the stuff we buy is just bullshit we don't need.


• Put all extra money toward the credit card debt until it's gone.

It definitely took some life-style adjustment. Going from a shiny new Nissan Maxima to a $1200 pickup truck from Craig's List isn't so bad once you become determined to achieve a goal... duct-tape seat-covers notwithstanding.

I've always known that being free of credit card debt was a Good Thing--and I even had a good idea of how to do it--but for a long time I just never took it seriously.

A lot of how I behaved in the last two years was inspired by this book.Why was a cheesy evangelical radio guy more effective than Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D at getting me to live my life with basic financial responsibility? As unlikely as it may seem, there's a good reason for it. I think that might be the subject of another post.

It's still a bit early to bust out the Cristal, however. I've still got a mortgage to pay off early.

Heh.

Cult IHOP

I'l like to see some numbers on which organization brings more people together: The International House of Pancakes, or The International House of Prayer. I suspect it's the former, but the latter seems to be gaining momentum.

The human condition often leaves people with a feeling of emptiness. Some of us fill that void with intercessory prayer. I personally fill it with coffee and cheese blintzes. (Mmm.)

Anyway, when a group starts touting its members as modern prophets, it's time to get suspicious.

Don't get pert with me

I've been getting two or three spam mailings a day from "people" praising PERT stock. Just in case you're new to the Internet, I figured I'd point out that PERT is a pump-and-dump scam. (There's great irony in a pump-and-dump stock called "Permanent Technologies, Inc".)

What's more distressing is how this volume of clearly related spam is getting through my otherwise impregnable GMail spam filter.

Blagonets win

A bet from five years ago:

In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site.

Winner: blags

They said it couldn't be done

At long last, flute playing and hip hop culture has merged.



Somebody call Doug E. Fresh!

Ninja-like productivity with GMail

All humility aside, my usage of labels and filters in GMail is way better than yours.

Like many people with keyboard jobs, I find myself inundated with email (I get hundreds a day.) After being overwhelmed for a while, I discovered some GMail tips that helped a great deal with my conceptual understanding and practical usage of labels and filters. Then, I discovered Getting Things Done, and that put the final touches on my philosophy of using GMail as a productivity tool.

First, a strict rule that's not up for debate: do not create a separate label for every mailing-list or sender you care about. Use search instead ("to:foo-list", "from:bossman"). Most GMailers realize this, but a lot of people either don't realize it, or they just fall into the old folder-paradigm habit. Do you have a crapload of labels that correspond almost 1-to-1 for mailing lists? If so, you're forsaking one of the central tenets that makes GMail really useful.

Second, you'll need to have a basic understanding of GTD. It is near-blasphemy to sum it up in a nutshell, since the GTD system is so packed with useful techniques for streamlining your work process... but I'll do it anyway.

• Everything you need to look at goes into a "stuff" bucket. You look into this bucket when you're ready to work on stuff.


• For each item in "stuff", decide what the very next tangible action required is.


• If you can do it in 120 seconds or less, do it now.


• If you can't do it in 120 seconds or less, you put it in a "next" bucket to process later.


• If you're waiting on something, put it in a "waiting" bucket.


• Items that take more than one tangible action to complete are "projects". Keep them in a "projects" bucket.


• Projects you're not sure about doing in the near-term go into a "maybe" bucket

Again, this is a very high-level glance at GTD, and there are many subtleties, but that's the gist for the context of the current discussion.

I use GMail labels as buckets. Here are my buckets. (My buckets. Let me show you them.)

• _maybe


• _next


• _projects


• _stuff


• _waiting

Also, certain items in my buckets may have another (optional) label/tag, which infers a physical context for the task. Remember, you may have multiple labels apply to a single item in GMail.

• @agenda (Items to be brought up with people in the context of a discussion / meeting.)


• @errand (Things I can only do when I'm out and about.)


• @home (Things around the house, like "take out the trash fortheloveofgod it is starting to smell".)


• @large (Things I need a long interrupted block of time to do effectively, like a non-trivial chunk of code.)


• @phone (Tasks requiring phone-talking. I hate these, but it's nice to drill down on them all at once when I have the opportunity.)

These are prefixed with _ and @ so they are listed first (and grouped) in my Labels list. Other "non-bucket" labels follow below them.

After distinct bucket-labels and context-labels are defined, you can add some Filter action to the mix. Here's a generic version of my current filter list:

# Filters for applying the _stuff label. These are all items I need
# to at least look at once in order to decide if they are worthy of
# a _next label.

Matches: (to:eater OR cc:eater) -{subject:"chat with" OR to:(eater+next) OR to:(eater+waiting) OR to:(eater+projects)}
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_stuff"

Matches: listid:myteam
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_stuff"

Matches: listid:myproject
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_stuff"

Matches: to:(other-important-list)
Do this: Apply label "_stuff"

# Bigshots also get a Star (in addition to the _stuff lable) just to
# be sure I don't miss their emails.

Matches: from:(myboss OR mydirector OR otherbigshot)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Star it, Apply label "_stuff"

# Things I really like to read get a _review label. They don't
# belong in _stuff since it's not critical I act on any of it.

Matches: to:(yiff-discuss)
Do this: Apply label "_review"

Matches: to:(right-wing-fascism-discuss)
Do this: Apply label "_review"

# I send notes to myself via command line, like "gtd.sh -n
# 'do foo'"... this just sends an empty email to me with
# "do foo" in the Subject. Depending on the item, I want to
# apply an appropriate label. I use GMail's "plus syntax":
# anything addressed to eater+next@gmail.com is delivered to
# eater@gmail.com, but I may filter "to:eater+next" uniquely.

Matches: to:(eater+next)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_next"

Matches: to:(eater+projects)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_projects"

Matches: to:(eater+waiting)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "_waiting"

# Some super-spammy lists shouldn't even go into my Inbox, but I still
# want them available for searching.

Matches: to:(spammy-list)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "lame_notify"

Matches: to:(other-spammy-list)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "lame_notify"

To summarize, anything that I need to explicitly deal with (or at least look at to determine if it needs dealing with) gets a _stuff label automatically. Since I always have a terminal window open, I can use a little bit of ugly shell-script to add items, which get the appropriate label automatically. This is almost always just for adding next actions, like: gtd -n 'schedule meeting with whatshisface re widgets'. This generates an email to eater+next@gmail.com, which goes to eater@gmail.com, which the to:eater+next filter tags with a _next label.

Got it? Okay, so here's my typical daily work cycle:

• Item arrives in _stuff label, which I check reguarly throughout the day.


• Many things I handle right away, like reply to some simple question, or delegate a task to somewhere more appropriate. (Remove label _stuff.)


• If it requires more than 2 minutes to work the very next action, I Apply Label _next, and remove label _stuff.


• If it requires action from someone else, I apply label _waiting and remove label _stuff.


• If I'm in a specific context, like near a phone and have some free time, I search for items labelled _next with context label @phone.


• Similarly, I have a Calendar reminder set to text-msg me at 9PM nightly. This is my cue to search _next + @home. ("Oh yeah! The trash needs to be taken out!")

Once a week, I do a weekly review. It looks like this:

• Review _waiting items. If somebody has let a task go stale in their court, I bump the thread and remind them.


• Review _projects items. Do I have a new next action (_next) for any of them?


• Review _maybe items. Should any of these become actual _project items yet?

I've been working this system for the better part of a year. I rarely, if ever, miss an email I should deal with. When I defer something to someone else, I know exactly who it's defered to, and the last time there was action on it. I know exactly who to follow up with. For any given context (at home, near a phone, running errands) I know exactly what I should be doing (reviewing errands I know "Oh right, I need to pick up some Scotch.", or near the phone,
I know "Oh, need to call my insurance company about my address change".) This maps nicely to an email-driven job.

I'm more productive. I know exactly what's on my plate at any given time. I can evaluate potential new comittments without fear of over-comitting. I don't let people down by not responding to their e-mail. I don't defer things and let them go stale. I am a corporate ninja.

This is only a cursory overview of GTD; I recommend you read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done.

Further caveats and suggestions.

It takes four or five big tries to really implement GTD effectively. I'm on my fifth, and I'm just now really getting the hang of it.

There are lots of little utilities to implement GTD workflows via software--even a Firefox extension that works directly with GMail. Avoid them, they all suck. (I don't want to hear your personal story about foobar's software util that works really great. Good for you. It still sucks.) Try it with only filters and labels for a while... it's really easy enough. Sometimes those add-on efficiency tools just get in the way, making you less efficient. Simpler is better here.

To complete the corporate-chic-trendy persona, I carry a Moleskine notebook in my back pocket to jot notes in, along with a short stack of index cards in a binder clip for writing down next actions (one per card.) This is for when I'm not in front of my laptop or workstation. When I get back to my desk, I quickly transcribe my paper notes into my GMail-bucket system. You can use your Crackberry for this, but I find the Luddite method to be quicker and less prone to dangerous gadget-creep.

I still clear out my Inbox regularly, but it's something I do quickly--once every day or two--and entirely at my own leisure. I know that nothing critical (that is, personally actionable) is in there, so it's all just information I can either read or ignore without ill effect on my personal obligations. (For critical things, my _stuff label view is my real inbox.)

Use Calendar text-message reminders to assist. I mentioned my weekday 9PM @home context reminder, but it's also useful for blocking out your weekly-review time, and other things you might otherwise use a tickler file ("43 folders" system) to implement.

Comcastic web development

This is the page Comcast displays when you enter an invalid username and/or password:

The page cannot be displayed The page you are looking for cannot 
be displayed because an invalid method (HTTP verb) was used to attempt 
access.

Please try the following:

    * Contact the Web site administrator if you believe that this 
      request should be allowed.
    * Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address 
      bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly.

HTTP Error 405 - The HTTP verb used to access this page is not allowed.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

Technical Information (for support personnel)

    * Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title 
      search for the words HTTP and 405.
    * Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and 
      search for topics titled Setting Application Mappings, Securing 
      Your Site with Web Site Permissions, and About Custom Error 
      Messages.

I didn't even realize that's what it was, until I noticed the URL had "&errorMessage=Invalid%20User%20Name%20or%20Password" in it. You'd think someone working there would be somewhat "good with computers". Oh, sweet feathery jesus.

This has been going on for at least a week... and probably longer.

This sums up it up perfectly

We've got serious issues

I'm pretty happy about The Clintons being stomped by Barack Obama. Obama is a compelling candidate, and if he's nominated, I could actually see myself voting for a Democrat this year.

The GOP has one shot at beating him. Obama's voting record isn't very appealing, in contrast to his moving speeches and his current image as iconoclast to the established Democrat beurocracy.

Republicans need to move back to their roots. If only they had a candidate like this:

• Never voted to raise taxes.
  
• Never voted for an unbalanced budget.
  
• Never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
  
• Never voted to raise congressional pay.
  
• Never taken a government-paid junket.
  
• Never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
  
• Voted against the Patriot Act.
  
• Voted against regulating the Internet.
  
• Voted against the Iraq war.
  
• Does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
  
• Returns a portion of his annual office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

Yep. If only they could find somebody like that to restore the party, they would stand a good chance of restoring the faith of the country, and winning this election. Could anybody fit that description? Sure, it's pretty unlikely; people with those kind of principals don't exist in politics any more.

Do they?

Booze test

I'm slightly ashamed...

85%DRUNKARD

(...that I didn't score better than this.)

I'd buy that for a tribble

Best Christmas present ever. (imdb.)

Even more sharing

Go grab your Google Reader shared item feed and plug it into Readburner. Then add the feed of popular crap to your Reader account. Good times!

Vote with your brain (not just your eyes)

This man's critical analysis of our country's current state deserves as much exposure as it can get.



This is a politician I only 80% agree with on particular issues, but I can trust that his views are based on careful analysis of empirical observations that largely align with my own. That's rare in politics. The others on that stage are more worried about the day-to-day polling data[1] than any hard-thought personal conviction about what's best for the country.

If Ron Paul looked like Mitt Romney, he'd be elected in a heartbeat.

[1] I don't totally hate McCain, but the one-liner quip about burqas is a rather disgusting example of pandering to emotion. We don't need that sort of thing in politics.

Assimilation

Some nice words from Carl Rogers.

I have come to feel that the only learning which significantly influence behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning.

Such self-discovered learning, truth that has been personally appropriated and assimilated in experience, cannot be directly communicated to another.

This sentiment has personal significance for myself, and is probably the best advice I could think to give someone else wanting to work in my field.

I have the utmost respect for formal education, but in my experience the best lessons are self-taught.

Died in a sharing accident

In contrast to popular sentiment, I sort of like sharing my Reader shared items feed (and reading the shared items from others.) If I know you--and chances are I do, as I have maybe a dozen non-bot subscribers--then you should invite me into your contact list. My username is obeyeater.

(Title inspiration goes to xkcd, of course.)