I try not to post videos without any accompanying commentary. But I figure this video speaks for itself.
Ok, fine. Some commentary
As you may have noticed, the economy sucks right now. Indeed, the nicest thing that that Obama administration can say is that the rate at which our economy is shedding jobs has plummeted. That, and they create some pretty compelling evidence that this is all Bush’s fault. So thank the gods for the stimulus bill.
As you can see, the biggest single item was tax cuts. Tax cuts are ok, and since Obama campaigned on a platform of giving a tax cut to 95% of Americans, it was nice to see him fulfill one less than a month into the job. Still, the stimulative effect of tax cuts are kind of mixed
One of the other major uses of the money was on unemployment benefits. This was a great use of federal dollars. I don’t just say that because absent my unemployment check I’d have to move back home. In that sense, both my parents and I are very happy. Other people who are happy that I get an unemployment check:
The fine people at Safeway who sell me food every week.
The employees at the coffee shop down the street where I occasionally buy a coffee or breakfast– or both!
The good people at Valve, from whom I buy the occasional video game.
The nice people at PG&E, who gleefully sell me power.
The bastards at AT&T who take my money in exchange for intermittent 3G service.
I could mention Target, Comcast, Petco, and many, many more.
Without the Unemployment Insurance check, I could figure out something. I might have to move in with my parents, borrow money, spend very, very little and hope that the economy picks up soon. And if it were just me, no big deal. But multiply my decreased expenditure by 14.8 million Americans, and the economy will start to look even worse. Valve would shut down*, Target would file for bankruptcy, the coffee shop near my house would have few or no customers, and thus close. Safeway would lay off a bunch of people… Instead of 14.8 million jobless people, we might be looking at 20 million.
The trick to government stimulus is getting money into the hands of people who would spend it– and quickly. It is a real irony that the rational individual response to a recession is to stop spending–while the best government policy is to spend. Good public policy will figure out how to make that happen. The best two things governments have in their tool kits are unemployment insurance and food stamps.
The stimulus package was too small, and contained a lot of things that didn’t do much.** But the heart of it was to put money in the hands of people who needed it– and would be able to keep their friends and neighbors afloat with it. That’s great return on investment.
*thus permanently delaying Episode 3…
** I’m looking at you, cuts to corporate tax rates!
I have long believed that my labor is worth something. Seems plausible. It is, in fact, the basis of a currency economy. So when I was told that in order to make it in my chosen field*, I’d have to spend some time working for someone and not getting paid for it. I find the suggestion outrageous. Yes, yes, play the game. Yes, yes, it’s the way things are done. Fine. Nonetheless, no one takes on an intern out of the goodness of their heart. I would be asked to answer mail, file papers, answer phones; all minor but necessary functions of an office. Things that, if people weren’t trying to do for free, would have to be paid for.
There are more people looking to get in to an entry level job than there are positions for them. Bosses therefore have let us bid-down the value of our work to the point where entry level jobs are called “internships”, and as a rule interns don’t get paid. Which is actually my point. There is a power dynamic at work. It’s the classic one where those who own the means of production are able to set the prices at which they will hire people to pull the levers of the machinery**. It seems nothing turns me into a communist faster than being asked to provide value to an organization without being recompensed for my time and energy.
Which brings up another point: who can afford to work for free? The only answer that springs to mind is: those who are being supported by someone else. Generally, the rich. It’s sort of disgusting that in America in order to have access to a high-level career, you need to build a network by bidding your labor-cost down to nothing. I’m not saying that only rich kids get internships. I’m not saying that no poor people do. I am saying that internships look like a tool by which power perpetuates itself. That is sort of the antithesis of what America is supposed to be about.
In other news: I had an interview yesterday for an internship. I don’t have to like a system in order to participate in it. In fact, I can hate it and still see that I need to do it. Nevertheless, the market has decreed that my skills, talents, experience and degree are all worthless. I’ve got to fix that…
*politics
** In my case, that would be the machinery of state
I enjoy football. I know, it’s verboten thing for a geek to enjoy. If we enjoy it, we should keep it to ourselves. Enjoying football could lead to Madden. I can’t help it, though. A boy likes what he likes…
Speaking of which. This last Superbowl was aptly named
This ad uses the voice of a TV serial killer to tell women that they impose so many rules and behaviors on men that the only choice we have is to buy a sports car. Wait, what?
This ad is truly awful, and anyone who thinks that angrily telling their s/o that watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer or True Blood requires more repayment than the inevitable hot sex* is, frankly, someone so dead to the world that not even an awesome sports car** will make them human.
And that was only one ad, among many, many, many more. Little remarked on was “Man’s Last Stand”‘s total opposite:
This song featured a joyous examination of the life of man. The whole thing is done to the finale of the William Tell Overture– a song about a man triumphing over an entire nation for his love of a woman. In contrast to the Dodge ad, this one speaks to men, and says, in essence “living up to society’s expectations isn’t always easy, but you’ve overcome it all, and deserve some really nice soap.”
The Dove for Men the ad seems to say that’s for little boys. Real men are comfortable enough to use the same soap as their wives. You know what? I agree. I’m not going to buy anything that calls me insecure. Because everyone knows that cool doesn’t need to swagger…
*true story: Both of those shows will get the watchers laid. Because they’re _hot_
** Which the Dodge Charger is not. I mean, have you seen their ad?***
*** Circular reasoning? I think so!
Ubisoft’s new DRM scheme is bad.
A good DRM scheme needs to do three things 1) convert pirates into paying customers 2) convert more pirates than it chases away people who buy the software* without the DRM and 3) convert so many more pirates that it pays for the cost of implementing the DRM.
I know why software developers hate piracy. Developers, artists, marketers, et cetera are pouring their energy and time into creating something and it’s being taken from them without recompense. That must be infuriating. I’m vaguely surprised no one has taken a shotgun to pirate bay’s servers out of pure rage.**
Nonetheless, Ubisoft doesn’t answer to it’s artists. It answers to its shareholders. Seeing this DRM, I’m a bit surprised ubi’s owners*** aren’t up in (metaphorical) arms, demanding the (metaphorical) heads of their employees at UbiManagement.
Most pirates can’t be converted. They are parasites at best, saprophytes at worst. And because the pirates will be offered a work-anywhere, limits-free version of Ubi’s software, it will actually be a superior version. This will have the perverse effect of incentivizing piracy, possibly converting paying customers into non-paying thieves.
Add to that the shear cost of running servers 24/7. Ubi will be paying for it’s DRM until it goes out of business. They’ve actually decided to pay for every minute of frustration that they’re inflicting on their customers. That’s a novel sort of “share the pain” approach, but I see above: I think this move will cost them more customers than it will gain them.
So ultimately, I can only see this is a move born of pique, rather than business sense. Which is fine for artists, but bad for a company.
*Software here refers to the entire class of artifact that are infinitely reproducible without diminishing value of the artifact. This would include PC software, as well as books, movies and music.
**Thus proving that video games don’t cause violence.
***For US$10.65, you, too, can own about 1/1,00,000th of ubisoft
So: when I was about 14 years old, my mom and I went to a science museum, where they had scales set for various planets. So if you weigh 100lbs on earth, you’d weigh 37lbs on Mars, etc. It was the first time I’d been on a scale in years. I stepped on the Earth scale and was 180lbs. I was a bit worried because that was more than I’d ever weighed before. I’d previously thought of myself as “skinny”, but had to start re-evaluating my self image. Sadly, from that point, I continued to gain weight, shooting past “fat” and into “obese”. I was rapidly approaching “morbidly obese” when a good friend decided she needed to lose some weight also. So we started changing our behaviors, hitting the gym, walking, stopped eating entire large bags of M&Ms, etc.
Today I weigh 189lbs…
A bit of progress
I’ve still got some work to do. I want to get down to “height/weight proportionate before I turn 32 (5 March, if you want to buy me anything), and to do that, I need to lose 2 pounds a week for the next 7 weeks.
But for now, I’m going to hit the gym…
All your bigotry are belong to us
There is a certain category of people who will claim not to be racists while doing racist things. For instance, This all-white basketball league. Here’s what they have to say for themselves:
Don “Moose” Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league’s roster restrictions is not racism.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.”
Racism is implicitly about creating an “us” to contrast with “them”. In academic terms “otherization”. “We” have “these qualities” (usually positive), and “the other” have “these other qualities” (usually negative). “We” have the “protestant worth ethic”, while “they” are “puritanical”. “We” are “civilized” while “they” are not.
Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of “street-ball” played by “people of color.” He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans’ dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.
Alright, let’s ignore that bit about “people of color”. Truth be told, I kinda like that phrase, and wish it weren’t taboo.* What Lewis is doing here is contrasting “fundamental basketball” (whatever that is) with “street-ball” (again, whatever that might be). In general, I can say that Americans tend to like “fundamental” and hate “street”.
Oh wait. I missed the other bit. Lewis is also contrasting players of “fundamental basketball” with players “of color” who “bring[...] guns into the [...] locker room”. This is pretty explicit: people who aren’t us are violent.
So there we have it: this league was founded on an “us vs them” mentality that otherizes their fellow human beings as being violent and lesser. Add it all up and we can say with certainty: supporters of the All-American Basketball Alliance are bigots.
Just for fun, I’d love to see one of their teams play an NBA team for charity…
*But it is. And as a white guy, I’m poorly placed to fix that. So I won’t try.
One of the freedoms I think we Americans notice least is the right to have juries sit in judgments of our trials. Always, when we discus juries, its from the perspective of what a hassle it is to sit on a jury, how much we’d prefer not to be on one, strategies on how to get out of one. Nonetheless, I would contend that juries serve as an important check against tyranny.
Looking at the structure of a courtroom, the prosecutor is in the employ of, and is representing “the State” either literally (ie: “The people of the state of California”), or more technically (ie: “the people of the United States”). Next there is the judge, who is an employee of the government doing the prosecuting. As is, very often, the lawyer for the defendant. Most criminal cases have police officers as witnesses– people who’s job is to protect the interests of the State, and are empowered to use violence towards that end. Weighed against this is the ideal of presumption of innocence… And one other thing.
When a person is brought before a jury, the jury is asked to make a determination of fact. Did these acts happen? The jury is, ideally, to have no institutional stake in the outcome of the case, merely a desire to see justice done. We amateurs are ripped from our own lives and placed in judgment of one of our own, in hopes that in a case of over-reach by the State, we citizens will be able to head off a grave injustice.
I’ve got jury duty today. I’m looking forward to it.
Don't post without these.
Owing to their losing market share, Microsoft today announced that they would begin cutting prices on all future operating systems down to $175, but would be discontinuing it’s policy of free service packs. Instead, they’ll be charging upwards of $25 for security and functionality improvements. These paid-for service packs will only work on a limited set of hardware. Supported hardware will only be announced once the service pack is released.
Perhaps this will help spur adoption of Chrome…
(Edit!)
Sometimes you miss. In case it’s not clear, I’m saying that this is Apple’s current strategy, and that it’s kind of awful.
(Edit Edit!)
It turns out that this is only potentially funny if you follow the links. And people aren’t doing that. Shame on you 