Posted from my iPhone.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Vast Dairy Conspiracy
I find this message about rBST rather odd. I can only conclude there is a vast dairy conspiracy afoot.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Following All Regulations
I cite as a sort of an addendum to a previous article I wrote on the subject, something Samuel Edward Konkin, III (SEK3) wrote:
If all regulations passed in any country you wish to name were completely obeyed, let alone enforced, we would all be dead.Source: The Agorist Primer, p. 39Consider a particularly pathological case in the United States of America. If you charge a price for your product higher than your competitors, this is taken as evidence under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act that you have a monopoly and charges may be brought against you. The same problem arises if you charge the same; that is considered evidence of a cartel and you and your competitors can all be fined. Finally, if you charge less than your competitors, you are violating the "Fair Trade" laws in most states and can be arrested and fined. It is impossible to obey all the regulations.
I heard a joke along these lines from a Mises conference. I'm sorry, I don't remember who originally told it. The joke goes like this:
There were three soviet prisoners comparing stories about why they were in prison. The first one said he was in prison because he was late to work. He was accused of being lazy. The second said he in prison for the same thing, only it was because he was early to work. He was accused of being too competitive. The third prisoner was always on time to work. He was accused of having an American watch.
It's kind-of sad because these Soviet vs. American jokes are dated and don't make much sense anymore.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
My Great-Uncle Alfred
I have a fictitious great-uncle Alfred. Everything he says is to be taken with a grain of salt. He is a huge curmudgeon and ultra-contrarian. If you tell him the sky is blue, he will tell you it's not really blue because yadda-yadda-yadda. His reasoning is deeply flawed because he is senile. But he doesn't know his flaws. He just knows he's always right. Most of the time he's not. But sometimes, he says things that are profound and actually do follow logically. After all, a stopped clock is right twice a day (unless it's military, then it's only right once a day).
A contrarian is a person with a preference for taking a position opposed to that of the majority view prevalent in the group of which they are a part. Both Alfred and I are contrarians. But Alfred is a total nut who can't be taken seriously and doesn't care anyway. I, on the other hand, do care. I want to be taken seriously and it bothers me to be ignored, unlike Alfred.
So if you tell Alfred he is sitting inside a motor vehicle, he will tell you there is no such thing as an "inside" to a motor vehicle. The concept of "inside" is define in topological terms to him. In topology, an object cannot have an "inside" if it also has a hole. Alfred is technically correct from the standpoint of this very specific area of mathematics concerned with spatial properties. But normal people do not think in those terms. Alfred doesn't comprehend the normal terms. He just assumes everybody knows what the heck he's talking about. He is only interested in being contarian and you're supposed to know that if you're talking to him. Alfred probably should be confined to a rubber room because although topology is an important area of study within mathematics, it is not something we apply in day-to-day life. He wouldn't be inside the rubber room anyway, so he'd probably be fine with that situation.
For instance, if I say I don't trust government, isn't that exactly how Alfred would say it? So maybe I can word it better. If I word it in such a way that it is atypical of Alfred but still gets the same point across, my idea will be more convincing.
Instead of saying I don't trust the government, maybe I could assert that government doesn't seem to act in the best interest of most people. That is a more reasonable assertion. And it's also very atypical of something Alfred would say.
Alfred is also very set in his ways. He learned one way to think about things and applies that way to all new situations.
Me: Have you ever heard of a "collar" trade in the stock market? It's a risk management strategy that combines a covered call and a protective put.
Alfred: They're nuts! That reminds me of portfolio insurance back in the 80's or credit default swaps in the 2000's. The problem with using these schemes is that if everybody does it, there's not enough liquidity in a crisis to protect everyone's asses when everything unwinds at once.
Maybe Alfred is right about that. But then again, maybe the markets figure out a way to address the lack of liquidity for massive collar trades. I'm not saying there wouldn't be new problems as result of solving lack of liquidity. But the specific problem Alfred cites isn't necessarily how it will go down just because that's what happened in the past.
Alfred thinks in absolute terms. He is fine with his totalogy and this makes him frustrating to talk to. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for me to sound like Alfred. Even when I go to the trouble of carefully wording my assertions (something I don't always do), other people immediately hear Alfred anyway.
Besides, cermudgeons who end up being right only become bigger cermudgeons.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
My Fitbit
I got myself a new pedometer recently. It's called Fitbit. It is wireless (Bluetooth) and uses a solid state accelerometer like those found in the iPhone and Wiimote. It's the geekiest pedometer there ever was.
All the data is collected and sent to their server, which is kind-of a drawback in my opinion. But there is no monthly fee for hosting the data and doing this allows their service to run on almost any platform. The data is collected wirelessly by the base unit. Bluetooth seems to be locked to the base unit only so there is currently no way to use the Bluetooth locally, but a ROM upgrade (or hack) will fix that.
But it works as advertised. It collects data all day and even when I'm sleeping and will calculate how long it took to fall asleep and how many times I awoke.
You can tell it when you start an activity. Below is the data it collected for a walk I took today. The last picture is from another service called InstaMapper (via iPhone GPS). The two together can give me a very accurate record of how much walking I have done.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Latest In Nanotech Lithography
Last, a new addition to your tech lexicon: Nanotech lithography. In the latest issue of Breakthrough Technology Alert, editor Patrick Cox told his readers about the coming boom in a technology that allows us to “print” electronics on virtually anything.Source: Agora Financial“Xerox has developed a silver-based conductive ink that can be printed on everything from plastics to textiles,” Patrick notes. “The ink’s melting temperature of 140 degrees Celsius is low enough to allow printing on plastics. Instead of expensive fabrication facilities, specialized inkjet printers will be able to print circuits that could be used as part of flexible signage, radio frequency identifier tags and even novelty clothing.
“Beyond logic circuits, energy storage devices will be printable as well. Two years ago, chemists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., were able to place a thin film of cellulose over a surface of carbon nanotubes. This breakthrough will enable paper and CNT-based batteries. Stanford researchers have been able to take a paper substrate and coat it with ink made of silver and carbon nanotubes to create working ‘paper batteries.’
“Paper-based batteries charge and discharge quickly, making them suitable for a wide variety of technologies. Together, these breakthroughs herald an era of ultra-cheap, easily manufactured energy storage…
“New nanotech-scale manufacturing and materials technologies in the semiconductor industry are going to power a revolution in how we make electronic devices, power our homes and collect and analyze information. Right now, the vast majority of people have no idea how profound these changes are going to be.”
This is just one of several technologies Patrick says are on the verge of changing the world as we know it. For the full list, look here.
Stuff like this is so cool. Even more cool will be the ability to fabricate electronics at home. What a brave new frontier to the information age!
Imagine some day people will buy $5,000 circuit printers with custom enclosure fabrication functionality. The user will download the specs and it will spit out a shiny new gadget. The requirements will change just like computers, along the lines of Moore's Law, so you'll want to have the latest printer. The fabricated gadgets could be as simple as a flash application today, like those annoying sound boards. Or it might be a hand-held game because eventually, these printers will be capable of fabricating lights, simple displays, and so forth, I imagine. Or maybe the lights are external and the displays would use a form of e-ink technology!
There will be completely practical uses for these printers, but by far, they will be used for total crap. Sounds like fun! Maybe I'll be able to print an actual working full sized flying car! I was promised flying cars, you know (E: Yes, Anthony, we know you were promised flying cars).
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