Category Archives: Rants & Raves

Wow

Posted on by
Reply

These photos are some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of amazing photos.

As you look at more and more, you realize that there’s clearly heavy post-processing being done, e.g., Photoshopping details in, and generally doing more than just ‘fixing’ things up a little. (Some clearly get a bit unnatural, but most are realistic, just too consistently perfect.)

It’s spurned a bit of debate on the DPReview forums about how far is too far. And I think I’ve changed my tune a bit: you can go as far as you want, it’s just that at some point your cross over from “Wow, you really brought out the details in that shot” to “Wow, you manufactured a great image!” But then there’s the in-between, where you can’t quite be sure how much was manufactured and how much was just an amazing shot.

In any case, you owe it to yourself to check out the photos. And maybe book a spot on the next flight to Java.

Social Skills

Posted on by
Reply

I’m hardly in the upper echelon when it comes to social skills, but I’m going to post this anyway…

I’ve come to the conclusion that a person’s social skills are one of the most important things they learn. The problem is that they seem to be learned solely through trial and error and observed experiences: no one ever teaches you anything formally. Some people are naturals. I just read an article about Obama, and he’s definitely one of them. Most people here, being a business school, have pretty good social skills. But we’ll periodically mingle with other schools. At a big convention we went to last year, I realized that some of the people there had terrible social skills, to the point of being somewhat creepy.

I think it’s somewhat industry-specific. In the business world, you need strong social skills. If I’d gone on to become, say, a programmer as I once considered, it wouldn’t have been as important, but it’d still be very important.

I view this as a sort of crisis. Too many mal-adjusted people are passing through our schools. In my opinion, it’s one of the most critical skills, and they’re just never getting taught. Let’s cut out history and replace it with Socializing 101. I never did like history anyway…

Vandalism

Posted on by
Reply

I’d really like to get into the mind of vandals.

Tonight I was poking around Wikipedia and noticed that someone had just vandalized one of the pages. I reverted it (super-easy!), and then did what all good denizens of Wikipedia should do: I looked at the guy’s changes. He’d vandalized several other articles, all basically stating, “I’m going to keep vandalizing until you ban me.” (He got banned about 3 minutes later.)

It’s incredibly easy to revert vandalism. Do they not realize how easy it is to undo what they do? (Some guy at work one night wrote in Sharpie all over the bathroom. I was so disappointed that he wasn’t there to see that it took us about three seconds to completely remove it.)

But why do they do that? It’s Saturday night. I feel kind of pathetic for happening to poke around Wikipedia. But it’s not as pathetic as pointlessly vandalizing Wikipedia articles. In fact, of all the pathetic things I’ve done, none have been as pathetic as that. What makes these people tick? Do they like the attention? Do they take delight in it?

Mint

Posted on by
4

Kyle was raving about Mint this morning. I just came across it on Digg and looked into a bit.

It’s got a very attractive website, and PC World raves about it. It’s sort like Quicken, only Web 2.0 based, and very, very spiffy. And free.

It’ll keep up to date for you and everything. All you have to do is put in all your bank account numbers.

I’m very eager to try this service. Except that I steadfastly refuse to put all of my bank account information into a website. Especially a startup one. If Paypal provided it, I might trust it. If my bank provided it, I’d definitely trust it. But a startup? Honestly, I think it’s safe and secure. It’s got some big names behind it, and it looks too ‘big’ for it to be one scammer. But that doesn’t mean I’m in a hurry to give them all my financial data.

Businesses

Posted on by
Reply

I have a lot of business ideas that are extremely well-thought-out and that would almost certainly be great. These aren’t them. These are kind of vague ideas. But I think that they could be very successful, too. The reason I propose them isn’t because I want to make a lot of money with them, it’s because I wish these businesses existed. (So feel free to steal these ideas!) * A bank that doesn’t charge its customers fees. In my opinion, the bank should be happy I keep my money there. I have a lot of choices. In return for me keeping my money there, they pay me interest. That’s how it should work, as opposed to, “In return for me keeping my money there, they charge me fees.” If I overdraw my checking account, it doesn’t cost you anything to cover it with money from my savings account. That annoys me. Charge me $2.50 if you want, but don’t charge me $35. And pay me decent interest. I can get 4.25% at ING, and am seriously considering moving some money over there. Why would you even bother paying me 0.25% interest? You can charge non-customers a fee for using your ATMs, but if I’m your customer, you’d better not charge me. And if I use someone else’s ATM, they can charge me, but you can’t! (I don’t understand that one at all: if I use someone else’s ATM, I’m already angry that you don’t have an ATM in the area. Put one up, or cover my ATM surcharge if you want to do something. But charging me?!) * An honest car dealership with fixed prices. You might see a car for $24,567 at the competition. We might have it for $21,500. You can come walk onto our lot, write us a check for $21,500 and drive away in it. We won’t spring extra charges on you at the end–it’ll all be included in that $21,500. But you also can’t get us to go down on price: it’s a fixed $21,500, just like the price of a TV in BestBuy would be. We won’t try to pressure you into buying anything. When we copy your drivers license while you go for a test drive, we won’t secretly run a credit check. (Is that even legal?) Where would you rather shop? Unless you’re a skilled haggler, probably at the place that just has one fair price upfront. * Kind of bizarre, but a place that will come pick up dirty things, wash them, and redeliver them. Originally I thought about laundry, although you’d have to undercut on-campus laundry for it to be worth it for me. But then again I might pay slightly more if you’d wash my clothes (and do it well!) and bring them back folded and everything. Probably not more than $10 for a week’s worth of laundry, though. But last night I noticed that the dishes had again piled up in our sink, and got to thinking… We have no dishwasher. Not only is it a pain to wash them all, but they’d be much cleaner if they were cleaned in a dishwasher. Imagine if, when you came to pick up my laundry, you took the dirty dishes too, and brought me clean laundry and clean dishes later in the day. * A free recycling pickup service, or a trash-and-recycling service that discounts for recycling. I recycle everything in NH, just because, well, why not? Here, I can get 5 cents a bottle if I take it to a redemption center, but I never have. I don’t even know where I’d go. Recycling facilities exist, so I can still recycle things, but when I buy drinks here, I’m paying the bottle deposit! Imagine how much you could make if you had a ‘garbage truck’ that just picked up cans on college campus. Probably at least enough to pay for gas + someone to drive it and pick everything up. I want to feel like I’m getting my bottle deposits back. So why not have a trash pickup service that discounts if you recycle with them, too? The first two businesses are the better ones, I think. Both would be best if they had fairly low margins, but I think they could make a killing on volume. In this situation, it is better to consult with the lawyers for business owners in GA for any options to develop the business. If a bank opened up that paid you, say, 2% interest on

any money you had in your account and didn’t spring unexpected fees on you, wouldn’t you consider switching? (2% interest is moderate.) And if I were to buy a car, especially having never done it on my own, I’d feel much better going to a place that just had one price, as opposed to trying to bargain over a price. (The other element is that the sales staff would be honest, friendly, and helpful.) The last two are more of a stretch. There’s considerable expense in picking things up, and laundromats probably don’t make a killing anyway. A pick-up laundry service may not be profitable, and I don’t know if there’s really much demand for pick-up dishwashing. And the recycling bit was just more of a vague suggestion. But if any of these four businesses existed, I’d probably use them. (Especially if the bank had an attractive, easy-to-use website where I could do all my banking. OMG, and they could partner with Mint and store the financial information somewhere other than Mint’s servers.)

Errors

Posted on by
1

I think I’ve mentioned that I’m running experimental software for my desktop environment. So every now and then it crashes. And the first time I log back in after my desktop environment crashes, I get this bizarre error: “Nautilus can’t be used now due to an unexpected error.”

I know that Nautilus is GNOME’s file manager, but I bet not everyone does. So imagine that your computer randomly locks up and, when you come back, the only thing you get is this message that a program you’ve never heard of can’t start for unknown reasons.

Of course, knowing what Nautilus is doesn’t help. Why is it starting a file manager? Well, apparently, because it draws the icons on my desktop.

But there’s a little “Show more details” box. (Kudos on this, BTW: it’s a good way to accommodate both the technical and the non-technical people.) Here’s what it says, verbatim

Nautilus can’t be used now, due to an unexpected error from Bonobo while attempting to locate the factory.Killing bonobo-activation-server and restarting Nautilus may help fix the problem.

And what does that mean? What factory is Nautilus looking for (is that even a technical term?)? What does Bonobo have to do with it? Why is there no space between “factory” and “Killing,” making it look like it’s looking or a file called factory.Killing?

I like the idea of having a simple error with the option to see the technical explanation. That’s a really good idea, and a great usability enhancement. But some notes:

  • An error saying that something meaningless to the user can’t be used for unknown reasons really conveys no information at all.
  • The technical explanation is even worse. Even when you figure out what Bonobo is, the explanation is bad. What was the unexpected error? If it keeps coming up, how might I go about fixing this “unexpected error” that I can’t even see? What does locating the factory mean? Is it a file path issue? Is it safe to kill bonobo-activation-server while I’m working, or will it bring everything down? Am I killing it or restarting it? Or will Nautilus do that? Why isn’t there a “Try to fix” button to do exactly what it tells me to try?

Maybe it’s a step in the right direction, up from “Error -134239520439: An error has occurred in UNKNOWN” type stuff. But if the error message ‘knows’ how to fix the problem, why doesn’t it do it? And why can’t error messages ever give a good explanation of what happened? What’s wrong with, “Nautilus has failed to start. Without Nautilus, your desktop will not have any icons. Click on ‘Show more details’ to see what happened and how to fix it,” with not just an OK (or “Dismiss”) button, but an “Autofix” button?

Politics

Posted on by
1

One thing I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but never really had the energy to do, is write letters about big issues. Alone it probably doesn’t make a huge difference, but when people get a deluge of letters either supporting them or condemning their stance on something, it most certainly can sway their opinion.

I think the first of the series of letters is going to Orem, Utah’s city council and police department, after their police department knocked down, handcuffed, arrested, and jailed an elderly woman… for not watering her lawn. The city attorney, most of all, should be written to, as (s)he still plans to prosecute her.

GMail

Posted on by
Reply

So I’m now forwarding all my e-mail to GMail. (Mostly because OWA is the worst mail client ever.) As you’re probably aware, there are sponsored ads. (Actually, I’m not sure why Adblock Plus isn’t catching them, but I digress.)

Today one of the other members in the Democrats here e-mailed me. His e-mail didn’t even discuss anything political, but I guess it picked up on the word “Democrats” in his signature. The ads were mostly about Ron Paul.

But the best… I just e-mailed one of my professors saying that I’ll miss her class tomorrow. The ads on the side are now for TheFakeDoctorsNote.com: “Print A Doctors Excuse Instantly.” How convenient!

2008

Posted on by
Reply

I would love to be wrong, but here’s my prediction for 2008: Rudy Giuliani. He’s not who I’m favoring to win (at all), but he’s who I’m currently convinced is going to win. Here’s why:

  • Obama: My favorite. But he’s young in the Senate and has no leadership experience (e.g., as governor). I think he’d do great, but I don’t think enough people think that.
  • Hillary: I’m a Democrat and agree with about 99% of her policies, and yet I’m not too fond of her for no reason at all. I know a lot of people, many who would normally vote Democrat, who would not vote for her. The problem is that I also think that she’s going to get the nomination. Which means it’s going to be down to her and a Republican. More on this in a minute.
  • Edwards: He’d make a great leader, but he’s not getting much attention right now. Unless this changes, I don’t think he stands a chance.
  • Bill Richardson: He’d also be great, but at the current rate, his recognition is so low that I don’t think he stands a chance.
  • Mitt Romney: Not many Massachusetts voters like him, especially since most Massachusetts residents are Democrats. No Democrats would vote for a conservative Republican in 2008. But what Republican is going to vote for the governor of the (arguably) most liberal state in the country, who implemented universal healthcare in the end of his term and was in office when we became the only state to permit gay marriage. He has his followers, but I don’t think he stands much of a chance.
  • Ron Paul: Some of his policies are good, but I think “out there” is the best way I’ve been able to describe him. While he has a very vocal cadre of Internet supporters, I don’t think he stands a chance “IRL.”
  • Rudy Giuliani: From what I’ve heard, a lot of NYC residents hate him. But he’s a moderate. I figure the far-right will go for Romney and lose. The far-left won’t vote for him. But everyone from center-right to center-left, and most undecideds, might be willing to consider him. (I’m not diametrically opposed to him yet, though I think I’d definitely vote blue.)

In addition to the whole, “I could be wrong” thing, this could also change over time. For example, if Edwards starts getting a lot of publicity, he stands a chance. Giuliani could fall in popularity. Obama could push his numbers up, or get the media to talk about something other than the fact that he’s black. Hillary could win over some voters by combating the impression that she’s uncaring and cold-hearted.