I will most likely archive in a non-public location previous writings. While this goes against my belief that blogging is a form of journalism, and no journalist gets a chance to change the past, I feel a clean break is the best approach. I’m not issuing any retractions, just no longer making content available.

Let me be clear: I love what I do. I enjoy programming and have thoughts for new things all the time that would be fun spare-time tasks. But I just have other outside hobbies and interests that I enjoy spending time on as well. It’s not that I check my programming hat at the door: I just put on my food hat (and wine hat, and Boston hat) over it when I’m not at work.

Speaking of work, it’s worth repeating that any topics I discuss here are a reflection solely on me and not any company or organization I’m affiliated with.

The truth of the matter is that RSS readers are a Web 1.0 tool, an aggregator of news headlines that never really caught on with the mainstream the way Twitter and Facebook have. According to a Forrester Research study about the reach of social technologies, only nine percent of U.S. online adults said they use an RSS feed monthly, down from 11 percent the year before. By contrast, 50 percent are visiting social networking sites, up from 34 percent last year and 39 percent are reading blogs, up from 37 percent a year ago.

Sam kind of misses the point about RSS. RSS isn’t a technology designed or implemented for the non power-user. RSS is an aggregation tool, designed to make it easier to blow through the Top 10, 20, 50 or 100 sites you visit daily, weekly, so on. That’s not really in line with people who use the internet as a communication tool, not as an information or entertainment one.

The common complaint with RSS as a technology is a valid one. RSS is a massive firehose; the sources never turn off, the reading never ends. I’m reminded of the Jay Leno Doritos commercials: crunch all you want. we’ll make more.

Reading RSS can be disheartening, because no matter how much you crunch at it, content providers will make more. Eventually, you will get full, and sick of checking. Many RSS users (Sam Diaz and me included) dread those high unread counts because they don’t symbolize what we have accomplished (staying informed) but what we have yet to accomplish (read the ninth article in a row about duck fat).

This is a problem not with RSS, but in the readers that use the technology. RSS readers universally have one major fault: they present information like it’s e-mail. There’s subjects, tags, folders, filters, and (worst of all) those unread message counts. Here’s a popular email client side by side with a popular RSS reader:

RSS is not e-mail. Thus, the successful RSS reader will present the information in a way that does not make it look and feel like e-mail. Unlike work, or even personal, e-mail, RSS doesn’t have to be read. Sure you might miss a fun recipe, or insightful political argument, but if your blog or friend network is robust enough, and the content is “important” enough, you’ll probably catch it later. And, unlike your bosses or clients missives, if you miss it, it’s not the end of the world.

Here’s a fun thought: since it’s got the potential and ability, why not make RSS the real replacement for the daily newspaper, with emphasis not on news, but on daily. Every morning at, say, 6 AM (customizable for early or late risers), your RSS readings are generated and aggregated from the sources you define. You can print it out, read it, ignore it, do whatever you want with it, but that’s all you’re getting so don’t come back until tomorrow.

There are all sorts of tremendous advantages to this: a bit of time delay allows authors to get the story right and make those post-publish edits. You eliminate the firehose feeling and can, if you do it right, present the information in a scheme that feels more analogous to RSS’s newpaper cousin instead of its e-mail one. You could also, I suppose, have some sort of algorithm to pick the “best”/”most popular”/”for you” stories up front, instead of the chronological layout of current RSS readers.

When I went out for drinks last night, I didn’t get lost on my way to a bar I’d never been to. I can listen to music, make phone calls, read books, and write blog posts all on a handheld device. So, so sweet.

Even in the best financial times, knowing your credit score and what’s in your credit report is sound practice. Unfortunately, the three credit reporting bureaus make it just about impossible to attain your credit information, especially if you’re a young, mobile individual: the type of person who most needs to know their credit history.

The Bureaus and “Free” Reports

There are three major credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion (occasionally Innovis will be mentioned as a fourth.) Each is a for-profit company: though the main goal is to provide credit information to the “real” customers (banks, rental companies, service providers, and others wishing to extend lines of credit to their customers),  the idea is to move as many paid-for consumer credit reports as possible. Though each is legally obligated to provide an annual credit report, all three never advertise this service. Instead, the credit bureaus push the pay-services, such as freecreditreport.com, and then attempt to upsell you with “maximum protection” packages.

To explicitly state it: freecreditreport.com does provide a free credit report, at no charge to the customer’s credit card. After seven days, however, the company begins a $14.95 per month “monitoring” service. Quoted from the FAQ:

Triple Advantage monitors all three of your national credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You will be notified of several important changes to any of your credit reports with email and, if you choose, SMS Mobile Text messaging alerts. You’ll know about new derogatory information, recent inquiries into your credit, and several
indicators of possible Identity Theft. Remember, Triple Advantage members also receive unlimited copies of their Experian Credit Report and PLUS Score after the trial period.

This part isn’t a bad system, albeit somewhat sneaky: the FAQ pointedly spells out the cost vs. promised benefits. I certainly view it as somewhat of a bait-and-switch, but that’s the basis of all trial offers. But, the tricky bit is that freecreditreport.com doesn’t provide scores or information from Equifax or TransUnion. You can purchase that information separately, of course: the cost is $24.95 per report.

Keep in mind that a credit score, credit history, and credit report can all mean different things. The most useful and valuable information is your credit history, since it influences the information that makes up your FICO score. Your history can be disputed and corrected with your work. The credit score is simply a mechanized weighted average of the different pieces of your credit history. Combined, these are called your “credit report”, but Experian, and eventually the other agencies, will provide a number based on a proprietary algorithm. Try and get your FICO score if possible: this is, by far, the standard used in determining credit worthiness.

Do you need programs like Triple Advantage? I don’t know, I suppose that’s a question of if the system works as Experian and the others want you to believe it does. I haven’t heard enough information one way or the other, but fortunately, if that $14.95 a month seems to pricey, there’s a different, cheaper and arguably better way to keep your credit safe.

Credit Information On Ice

The best way to protect against your credit being used for someone else is a freeze. A freeze works by preventing anyone, including you, from getting your credit history or score. Different states have different guidelines and rules, but most involve a fee per freeze creation, temporary lift (while you seek credit from a lender) and removal. In Massachusetts, the fee is $5 for each of these, or free if you’ve been a victim of identity theft. You’ll need to set up a freeze with each bureau: they don’t carry over.

The most taxing part of the freeze process is the lead time you’ll need to take into account when you apply for new credit. Plan on at least three to five days to lift the freeze, and notify the agencies which creditor(s) will be looking at your account. Having a freeze does not adversely affect your score, and as far as I can tell, it won’t hurt if you accidentally provide the wrong name for a creditor.

Proving you’re you

Anyone who has attempted to retrieve their personal credit history online has undoubtedly run across this sort of question (paraphrased here):

“Our records indicate that in November 1998, you may have opened a home mortgage account. Which bank did you open this with. If none of the options are applicable to you, or you do not pay mortgage payments, please select NONE OF THE ABOVE.

A) SMTH BRNY SAV & LOAN
B) CRESTMARK BANK
C) FIRESTAR BANK
D) CITI BANK
E) NONE OF THE ABOVE”

The credit bureaus claim that this information should only be known to you. The reality is that this question is scary, counter-intuitive, and poorly designed, and probably doesn’t go as far to “protect” you as the credit agencies want you to think.

For starters, there have been a plethora of mergers in the banking sector in the last five to ten years. Smith Barney? Now a part of Citigroup. Which do you pick? And that’s assuming you’re not being “tricked”. I obviously don’t (though I wish I did) have a mortgage payment, but what if someone stole my identity? I can’t answer accurately if I don’t have all of my information meticulously organized, and even then, the very thing I’m trying to prevent could cause me to be locked out of their system.

Keep your financial information together, and know your accounts and history as far back as you can go. The system, terrible as it is, is the one we’ve got right now, so when you face a question like the one above, having your stuff together will really make a difference.

Speaking from experience

Suck it up, invest some time (but not money) into getting copies of your credit report. You can put the burden on the credit bureau and write to them (information on http://www.annualcreditreport.com) providing some personal information such as current and past addresses, as well as your social security number. Unless you’ve been a recent victim of identity theft, don’t waste money on credit-monitoring, and even then, look into alternatives, like credit freezes. Shred your personal financial documents when no longer needed, and never give or leave out personal identifying information like your social security number. Ideally, you shouldn’t carry your SSN in your purse or wallet. Memorize the number, don’t write it down or store it in your cell phone, and keep your original card under lock and key.

Technorati Tags: credit, money, finance

“So if you take the drug and pee on a special piece of paper, a secret message appears. If you don’t take the drug, you can pee on it all you want, but it will not reveal the secret message.”

I can definitely see this extending to doping at the Tour Du France, only the message would be “Allez directement en prison, vous porcine américaine.”

via An Ingenious Approach to Drug Compliance – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

The graph above appears in a post over at Cognitive Daily. Basically, the colored columns for each age group correspond to three different “finding” tasks associated with objects underneath cups. In all three, a reward is hidden under one of two cups, and then the cups are hidden from view while the table rotates 180 degrees (to swap the location of the cups) or 360 degrees (to keep the cups in the same locations). The tasks vary as follows:

• Colored cups: The cups are the visual indicator that a change has or has not occurred.
• Left/Right: The cups are the same color, but the table is the visual indicator: half-black and half-white. The cups occupy exactly one color.
• Top/Bottom: The cups are the same color, and the table is the visual indicator: half-black and half-white. The cups straddle the color division line. If the table is black on top, rotating it 180 degrees means it will be black on the bottom.

To me, the interesting thing is the decrease in performance in the colored cup task: arguably the most basic. I suspect that not enough data was gathered. I’d love to read the article, but not for the $11.95 asking price.

via Cognitive Daily: Human children versus apes: Who’s better at tracking hidden objects, and why.

BumpTM makes swapping contact information as simle as bumping two phones together. No typing, no searching a list for the right person, no shaking your phone, no modem noises, no mistakes.

via Bump Technologies LLC.

Finally, a business-card replacement that makes sense. Bump provides seamless transfer of information using a shared, secured, authorizable medium. You can’t have my contact information unless I want you to have it. I get to pick what contact information you recieve, and there’s no chance for error at data entry.

Simply brilliant. Another reason I’m still impressed with the iPhone and the developer talent.

Saw this list of Twitter uses the other day; kudos to Olin for the top spot (though the list might be unranked) for the 3rd-Floor West Hall laundryroom Twitter agent. Anyone familiar with this know how it works? I don’t remember how the LaundryView system works, but if I recall correctly, there’s e-mail functionality. It’d be interesting to learn more. Reply in comments if you’ve got the details.

First, with cygwin. I tried to set up LaTeX, and hit wall after wall. Getting past using TeTeX instead, I still hit issues with installing Ghostscript, both the windows executable and the binary from cygwin. Something, deep within the belly of the machine is going haywire, but it pains me how easy it is to set up LaTeX and GS in Ubuntu: GS comes pre-installed in Hardy Heron, and after 10 minutes with the CLI I had a full PDF version of Professor Allen Downey’s How To Think Like A Computer Scientist, compiled from source. As of this writing, my windows/GS problems are still unresolved, so thanks, Windows.

The other issue is with unicode boxes in Firefox. Even in FF3.0, you can run into problems with boxes instead of text like this: さんぽ (if you’re seeing boxes here, you’re seeing the problem.) Apparently, Widnows doesn’t have full-on unicode support on by default, so you’ll have to get a full sans-serif Unicode font and install it. A simpler way might be to follow these instructions for Office installations, though YMMV. Don’t forget to restart FF if you go this route.

Even with years of experience, I still slap my head when it comes to understanding the pains and hassles Windows environments face. One of these days…..