not-bloggers

Carma

2008-08-22T09:09:00.001-07:00

Wow, we've done a terrible job keeping up with this NotBlog (tm). Oh well. Here's a not-so-interesting story if you're bored.

Yesterday, while walking home from work, I passed a parked car that had its lights on. There were two men standing next to the car, which also had a slight opening in its sunroof. One of the men had a long stick of bamboo, and was trying to turn the lights off with the bamboo stick, using the opening in the sunroof for access. Needless to say, it's quite difficult to rotate the headlight control using a bamboo stick.

I was confused. The keys were locked in the ignition of the car, and it seemed to me that the easiest thing to do would be to unlock the car door with the bamboo stick, and then turn off the headlights using those amazing "opposable thumbs."

I asked the man if this was actually his car, because I couldn't understand why he didn't seem concerned about getting his keys out. I got a smart-ass response. At this point, I considered leaving him there (he had been trying this for a few minutes, apparently), and letting him be screwed. But I decided to be nice, took the bamboo stick, and unlocked the car door in approximately two seconds. (I was lucky that the locks were the type that were easy to unlock just by pushing them up from the inside of the car.)

The two men looked at me in amazement. (I should point out that unlocking the car was *not* difficult, and any of you, my loyal readers, could have done exactly the same thing.)

As I walked away, one of them called out to me, "Hey, are you an engineer?"

"Yes sir!" I replied.

Netflix ratings over time

2008-07-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

To date, I've rented 65 DVDs (movies and TV shows) from Netflix, and I thought it might be interesting to see what it would look like to plot the ratings for those DVDs over time. So I did it. I'm still not sure whether or not it's actually interesting, but I figured I'd share anyway ... just in case.

So here are DVDs 1 through 65 (along the x-axis) with their 1 through 5 star rating (on the y-axis), along with a trend line that shows the average rating of all DVDs to that point:

Not Always Right

2008-07-02T16:24:00.001-07:00

Something happened this week that reminded me of a fantastic website, Not Always Right. On Monday I went to Delfina Pizzeria with L, and had the following conversation with our waitress:

Waitress: "Can I get you anything to drink?"

L: "We're not sure which wine to get. What would you recommend?"

Waitress: [recommends a wine]

Me: "Okay, we're trusting your recommendation! It had better be good!"

Waitress: "Oh, don't worry. If you don't like it, I'll drink it."

Me and L: "..."

WALL-E and anti-consumerism

2008-06-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Saw WALL-E last night. It was another good movie from Pixar, featuring another great short beforehand called "Presto." I wouldn't put it up there with Nemo, Monsters, and Ratatoulle, and they played up the cuteness factor a bit too much with their mini Johnny 5, but still definitely worth seeing.

What struck me about the movie was the very blatant anti-consumerism message. It was like they took a page out of The Story of Stuff (mentioned in an earlier post and still very much worth watching) and fast-forwarded to a sci-fi-worthy version of the future where people are fat, lazy, and have every impulse both generated and satisfied by a Walmart-like superstore. This animated comedy highlights perceived obsolescence ("blue is the new red!"), the power of advertisements and media (the average American is exposed to 3,000 ads per day!), the inability of new technology to increase happiness (also mentioned in The Paradox of Choice, definitely worth a read), and the general downside of our current pattern of externalized costs.

I was pretty psyched to see these topics covered in this way. Kids can't hear this stuff enough, especially since they'll probably have to start cleaning up this mess.

Borderline behavior

2008-06-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hola Compadres! I must say that it is was a bit intimidating to join the ranks of notbloggers and I hit a substantial writer's block going into my first post. So- I decided to do what made sense to get over my lack of creative ideas- I got drunk. After a fog of several mixed drinks, cheap beer and maybe some shots (of tequila of course) I came to a realization. Some things are not as cool for people who are 30 as they are for people in their 20s.

Now 30 is often the upper limit of the 18-30 demographic but obviously the differences between an 18-yr old and a 30-yr old are vast. What is news to me is that there is a large divide say between 25 and 30. Apparently when you are 30 you are expected to have a bit more sense than to get totally blow-torched, pass out, lose your wallet/purse, and have to recover any shred of respect that you previously had the next day. Frankly, as I have observed over the past year, it can be downright shameful to be drunk and ridiculous when you are 30 whereas had you been a little bit younger you could pull off inappropriate behavior as being a "late bloomer" or just a "good time." Although the divide is subtle for those that look younger than their age, once a late twenty-something realizes that a 30 year-old was acting more outrageous than a 20-something a whole new level of judgement is passed.

So, I suppose when you are 30 you should really think of yourself in the 30-39 demographic rather than hold on to the good old 18-30 bucket. That will ensure a smooth border-crossing year with minimal impact to your reputation and possibly career.

Imitation is Flattery

2008-06-03T17:31:00.001-07:00

McDonalds recently came out with their "Southern Style Chicken Sandwich" (shown at left). Now, I'm from the South, and as a result, I am extremely suspicious of anything labeled "Southern" that is not actually in the South. For example, Southern Style BBQ in Boston is, well, terrible. Southern Biscuits in Seattle = even worse. You get the picture. But McDonalds might be onto something here.

The new sandwich is quite obviously a rip-off of the classic Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A, right down to the two pickles. But this is where McDonalds went wrong - the pickles in the McDonalds sandwich are on top of the chicken breast, while the pickles on the Chick-Fil-A sandwich are below the chicken breast (as seen in the photo below). Clearly, this will be their downfall.

I've tried the McDonalds sandwich, and it's good. But it's not as good as Chick-Fil-A's sandwich. However, the nearest Chick-Fil-A to me is in Fairfield, CA, while there are approximately sixteen billion McDonalds between me and the closest Starbucks. And this is where it gets dicey. Chick-Fil-A is fairly successful, but they are not nearly as widespread as McDonalds. Plus, they aren't as well known. My worry is that in markets with both chains, customers may not be as loyal as I am, and will switch to the cheaper (and more conveniently located) McDonalds. And I don't think I could bear to live in a world without Chick-Fil-A.

But that's just me being pessimistic. My real prediction is that the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich will sell fairly well, but will be canned by Mickey D's corporate. I don't think it will be a complete failure like the Arch Deluxe or the even bigger flop, the McLean. Instead, it will be relegated to the likes of the McRib, which shows up once in a while, and is delicious, but isn't a permanent menu item. At least, that's what I hope happens - I want Chick-Fil-A to stick around.

Bringing some Latina flavor to the site

2008-06-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

We've got another new notblogger for you, all 5 of our loyal readers. (Actually, not counting the authors, it may be significantly less than 5, but what you guys lack in quantity you make up for in quality!)

Our newest notblogger is k-pasa, and we can assure you that any similarities to America's first bilingual situational comedy from 1977 are purely coincidental. We're excited to have her with us!

What does your car say about you?

2008-05-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

The car I was driving behind this morning had 3 bumper stickers. Seeing them together, I couldn't help but wonder who was behind the wheel in front of me ...

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

2008-05-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

I was doing some research this weekend on the Birthday Problem (for a later post), and it made me think about statistics. Contrary to the title of this post, I don't want to get into a discussion about whether statistics are used to manipulate the public, or whether they are misleading. Instead, I thought I'd point out two cool facts (stats?) that I found out this weekend.

The 4th most populous country is Indonesia (2007 Estimated Population: 234 million). This explains how Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.
In the US, there are a lot of unmarried women giving birth (at least, compared to what I would have guessed). In 2005, 36.9% of babies were born to unmarried women. [1]

And of course, I can't finish without making fun of abstinence education. If I had to guess, the states with the highest teenage birth rates are the same ones teaching abstinence in schools. (Of course, this comes full circle to damned lies, since the high teenage birth rate could also be correlated to a lack of social acceptance of abortion, or other factors. )

[1] CDC National Vital Statistics Report - Vol 56, Num 6.

New appreciation for typeface

2008-05-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie Helvetica last night, and I don't think I'll ever look at typeface the same again. It was pretty amazing to hear type designers describe their craft with parallels to politics, world history, artistic genres, social movements, everything you could imagine. I had no idea how important, how meaningful, and, perhaps most shockingly, how controversial the Helvetica typeface is.

Here's a quote from the movie to give you a taste:

When you talk about the design of Haas Neue Grotesk or Helvetica, what it's all about is the interrelationship of the negative shape, the figure/ground relationship, the shapes between characters and within characters, with the black, if you like, with the inked surface. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. I mean you can't imagine anything moving. It is so firm. It's not a letter that bent to shape, it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. It's ... oh, it's brilliant when it's done well.

If you find that excerpt intriguing, then you'll find the movie worth watching.

Some friends are negative (when squared)

2008-04-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Me!

2008-04-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is my first post on notbloggers, and I'm very excited to be a part of this fantastic team. On a normal blog, this is the post where I would introduce myself and say how I know the other authors, but since I'm not supposed to reveal any identifying information about a-corn and T-bone, I will forgo the normal.

Instead, I thought I'd write about an awesome article I read over at The New Yorker about the Enron meltdown. The essay is by Malcolm Gladwell, and points out that the Enron team didn't go far out of its way to hide their actions. Instead, all the necessary information to deduce that Enron was overvalued was out in the open, in public SEC filings, though it was (as expected) a bit convoluted. I don't think Gladwell is trying to apologize for or justify Enron's actions, but the article does bring up some questions about who is to blame for Enron's collapse. Gladwell's article struck a chord with me, because I have spent a lot of time thinking about the difference between illegal actions and immoral actions. In our society, many things that are immoral are not illegal, and vice versa. One might even argue that as the CEO of a publicly traded company, it is your duty to consider every legal option to increase shareholder value, even if such actions are immoral.* Is something wrong with this system?

* For example, we (society) never seem to care about every multinational hoarding profits overseas, or in the Cayman Islands, simply to avoid paying US corporate income tax.

Not just varicolored diamonds on a solid background

2008-04-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Some exciting news for you, loyal readers ... we've got a new notblogger! This increases our writing staff by a full 50%. A few more and we might just exceed our current rhythm of less than one post per week!

Our newest notblogger is none other than r-gyle, not to be confused with argyle, especially of the reinforced schooling breeches variety. We're excited to have him aboard and look forward to his first post!

Pace of climate change

2008-04-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

Al Gore's latest slide show was presented for the first time at TED -- it's worth watching, and includes evidence that the pace of climate change may be worse than originally thought.

Some highlights:

A substantial portion of the polar ice cap has disappeared over the last 28 years. He compares a recent picture with one from 1980 and it's a pretty startling difference.
Comparisons between Earth and Venus: the main difference in planet temp (59ºF vs. 855ºF) is not due to proximity to the sun, but instead the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, which traps heat in.
They had a commercial competition and the winning ad (shown at 10:20 in the video) made a clever conversion from the 6.1B tonnes of CO₂ released into the atmosphere in 2005 to the equivalent number of elephants by weight. "It's time to stop ignoring the 1.2 billion elephants in the room."
Developing countries are following our pace of emissions, tracking the US curve pretty closely, just 40 years later.
A suggested solution: "put a price on carbon" in the form of a revenue-neutral CO₂ tax to replace taxation on employment.

My hero Kurt Vonnegut had this to say in his last book (which I talked about earlier):

And my car back then, a Studebaker as I recall, was powered, as are almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, and electric power plants and furnaces, but the most abused, addictive, and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels.

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won't be any left. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn't the TV news is it? Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fules in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about the face cold turkey, our leaders are not committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we're hooked on.

There you have it.

Zero to Movie in 34 minutes

2008-04-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

I've been a loyal Netflix customer for more than 3 months. I originally joined the service to watch 6 seasons of Scrubs (3 DVDs per season), which I did in less than a month. In the 2 months since then, Netflix has provided me with 2 full seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 1 season of Taxi, 2 comedy routines, and 10+ other movies. (I know, I know -- I need a life.)

Anyway, for the first time today, I was left at home without a precious red envelope, so I decided to try out the "Instant DVD" feature of Netflix. Instant my a**. Here is a replay of all the steps it took to go from clicking "Play" to clicking "Play" again to actually watch the movie:

Start time: 7:28pm

Only supports Windows; switch from Mac to Windows
Only supports IE6+; switch from Firefox to IE
Install NetFlix player
Install DRM for Windows Media Player (WMP)
Security update for WMP
Upgrade to WMP11
Upgrade requires validating that Windows is "genuine"
Reboot! (new version of WMP requires restart)
Upgrade random component of WMP to support "Movie Playback"
"You do not have the rights to play this video." click, click click through dialog boxes
Testing connection speed ... and *play*

End time: 8:02pm.

Finally, 11 steps and 34 minutes later (actually a bit longer than 34 minutes, since I didn't actually count steps 1 and 2), I was ready to watch my 90 minute "Instant DVD". True, this is a one-time process and my next instant movie will be more instant. But still, I'm pretty sure they lose a good chunk of users somewhere before step 7. I can't really blame Netflix, though -- if anything, this just proves the brokenness of DRM.

Eisenhower's farewell address

2008-03-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

Just watched Why We Fight, which was first screened at Sundance on Jan 17, 2005, 44 years to the day after Eisenhower's farewell address. (It received the "Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.") Here's my review: go watch it.

The film gives special attention to that famous farewell address, which is perhaps most well-known for this part:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

But it's worth reading the whole thing, especially during election season.

Marketing luxury

2008-03-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered why champagne is associated with excess and high society, the Wikipedia article on champagne in pop culture is worth a read. Here's the short version: Champagne producers made a concerted effort starting in the 1800's (if not sooner) to market the sparkling wine as the favorite of kings, dukes, nobles, knights, etc. Then came a couple hundred years of celebrity endorsements and product placement in art, music, books, and movies. In 22 James Bond movies, he drinks champagne 35 times (as opposed to only 22 martinis).

Fast-forward to today, where the brand associations are reinforced as champagne is sprayed on race car winners, broken over the boughs of new boats and planes, and generally used for occasions worth celebrating. Cristal has been a mainstay in hip hop videos (though perhaps less so after the company was less than gracious to its rapper clientele).

This sort of marketing is out of the same playbook that De Beers and luxury car companies have used to weave their products (and the desired brand associations) into the fabric of society. I wonder if, with enough money and time, the same could be done for spam and tricyles.

Irish bishops wreak havoc on Paddy's Day

2008-03-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

According to the History Channel:

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years.

The History Channel is a liar. St. Patrick's Day is actually March 15th this year. The bishops of Ireland (side note: good name for a rock band) had it moved due to a conflict with Holy Week. Apparently, this is not the first time. It happened in 1940 and will happen again in 2160.

This inconsistency has wreaked havoc on fans of the annual feast day. They're not sure when to wear green, when to eat Irish stew, when to drink Guinness, and they're liable to miss the St. Patrick's Day parade entirely. There are even reports of would-be leprechauns in shamrock antennae pinching random people on random days just in case it happens to be Paddy's Day. The only solution here is to reorganize the church's priorities. We need Holy Week moved around for St. Patrick's Day, not the other way around. Petition here.

Origin of the high five

2008-03-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

In case you aren't aware, you should know that there's a fierce ongoing debate as to the origin of the high five. Some credit Lamont Sleets Jr, a Murray State basketball player who traces it back to the mid-60's. The story goes that it began as an informal greeting among his father's army buddies from "The Five" (1st Battalion, 5th Infantry in Vietnam). A young Lamont began using the gesture as well, adding a "Hi, Five!" to greet the group by name.

Others would have you believe it was University of Louisville's Derek Smith who coined the gesture and term in 1979. A few sources credit the Dodgers' Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke with the first high five in 1977. Wikipedia traces its roots to as early as Gene Kelly and Phil Silvers in the 1944 movie Cover Girl.

Regardless of its origin, the high five has fallen on some hard times since the mid-80's. I've heard some go so far as to say it's "not cool." I hope you'll join me in ensuring the high five remain an important and respected part of congratulatory celebrations. We can't let the world sully its reputation and hallowed, albeit disputed, history. Please join me in bringing it back, one high five at a time.

The long tail

2008-02-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

Recently, "the long tail" has started creeping back into conversations. I'm not sure why, maybe Chris Anderson's recent Wired cover story has something to do with it.

In any event, I've noticed that the longer the term's been in the mainstream, the more diluted its meaning has become, to the point where Zipf's law and the power-law distributions seem to have been largely forgotten. I jotted down this graph:

Don't get me wrong, I understand the value of books like The Long Tail and The Tipping Point. Without them, a lot of interesting and important ideas would never make it mainstream. I guess I just wish that the underlying concepts were remembered as much as the buzz words that seem to replace them.

Kennedy and Nixon's first debate

2008-02-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

With all the comparisons being made between Obama and JFK, I decided to rewatch the first Kennedy-Nixon Debate. Man, there's a lot in those 30 minutes -- I think I could watch them a hundred times and still learn something on the hundredth view. I've always found it interesting that, as the story goes, most people who watched the debate on TV believed Kennedy had won, while most who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon won.

If you're interested, the TV footage is available online:

There's also a full transcript.

A Reality Confession

2008-02-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

I've always looked down on reality TV. In fact, I tend to be skeptical of most things that have immediate mass appeal -- I refused to read Harry Potter books for 4 years (but am now addicted to them). Reality shows come in many shapes in sizes, and have completely taken over our cable stations. What started with The Real World on MTV has become: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Amazing Race, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, Hell's Kitchen, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Making the Band, America's Next Top Model, Extreme Makeover, The Swan, Beauty and the Geek (which I've actually had a friend take part in), Wife Swap, America's Got Talent, and many more than I could ever name in a single post. Every time I am forced to watch one even for a few microseconds as I'm flipping through channels, I can feel a few of my brain cells dying.

However, as you can guess from the title of this post, I have a confession to make. I think Project Runway is a great reality TV show. It's about a group of clothing designers who compete for a spot in NY's Fashion Week by completing a series of difficult design tasks (my favorite being the one where they had to make evening gowns entirely out of materials you could find in a grocery store -- the winner of this contest made his dress out of coffee filters). I think the reason I like this show is that it appeals to the engineer in me: each person has limited raw materials and is forced to create something complete in a short, stress-filled timeframe. The work that the contestants produce is impressive, and it's pretty obvious that they're really talented.

Until last night, I was privately embarrassed about liking this show. But then I saw Jon Stewart (of *A* Daily Show) confess that he's a Project Runway fanboy. He even invited Tim Gunn as a guest on his show. Now that Jon Stewart has come clean on this important issue, I feel compelled to follow suit. My private embarrassment is now public (to all 5 readers of this blog -- ok, 3 if you don't count the authors), and it's in good company.

If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

2008-01-23T23:54:00.000-08:00

Just finished A Man Without a Country, a collection of Vonnegut's essays that paint a rather bleak picture for our future (and present). A self-proclaimed Luddite, he makes some pretty convincing arguments against our concept of "progress" and doesn't dance around his opinions on what have become highly politicized topics. Ok, enough with the summary. Just read it and, in the mean time, here are some excerpts to tide you over.

I thought his take on jokes was pretty interesting -- that "Freud said that humor is an almost physiological response to fear":

Even the simplest jokes are based on tiny twinges of fear, such as the question, "What is the white stuff in bird poop?" The auditor, as though called upong to recite in school, is momentarily afraid of saying something stupid. When the auditor hears the answer, which is "That's bird poop, too," he or she dispels the automatic fear with laughter. He or she has not been tested after all.

"Why do fireman wear red suspenders?" And "Why did they bury George Washington on the side of a hill?" And on and on.

Also, his pointed criticism of those who misuse religion for things like war, politics, and discrimination, e.g. this interesting observation:

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

"Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

But despite his cynicism, despite his disappointment, despite his lack of faith in the human race, he maintains some sense of inspired hope and appreciation for the good things in life. In Kurt's own words:

What made being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music, was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society.

Another example, in the form of advice:

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

So there you have it. I encourage you to read everything Vonnegut wrote, including his latest. It goes without saying that he will be missed. Kurt is up in heaven now.

Irrational Arguments

2008-01-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

If numbers could talk...

I thought of this one while reminiscing about my Math Team days. Sadly, I had to double-check wikipedia to confirm that sqrt(2) was indeed irrational.

Sleeping Beauty's name is Aurora

2007-12-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Like all 3-year-old girls, my niece is obsessed with princesses. Not just any princesses, of course, but Disney® Princesses. (As uncreative as princess recycling may be, you have to appreciate the marketing genius.) Anyway, we were going through all the princesses, trying to remember their names ...

Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, ... so far so good. Snow White, Jasmine, ... umm, which one is that? "I don't know. Cinderella?" Nope, we already got that one. A quick Google search uncovered that she is none other than Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty. Now you know -- just in case you have to play the name-game with your niece or you're due up on a cartoon-themed quiz show.

Oh and for the sake of completion, Pocahontas and Mulan are the other two princesses in the full Disney set, though they're not included in most of the merchandising.