Three Things

First off, this article.

India losing it’s competitive edge? In the short term, sure. Weak infrastructure, unprepared and inefficient government. So if you needed your reason to go back to shouts of ‘USA, USA!’, there you have it. Just don’t count on it to last too much longer. All those H1B students returning home from US graduate schools will invest in the infrastructure, which will in turn bring more students home, and so on. Unless we did the intelligent thing and kept them here, but I so often forget the harsh realities of this post-9/11 world.

Second, this one.

I have no real problem with the content of the article, but as I was reading it I couldn’t help but feel like it was written by a third-grader. I understand that the new wave of online journalism enables anyone anywhere to become a ‘legitimate’ source for news and opinions, but we shouldn’t let that come at the cost of intelligent writing and thought-provoking articles. Poor writing leads to poor credibility, good writing lends credibility. In an age of wikis & blogs where unsubstantiated rumors and unverified sources pass as fact, determining a sense of credibility is key.

Finally, this.

Apple has finally grown tired of Psystar’s antics and filed suit. It will be interesting to see how well a vague EULA stands up in a legal court, but I wouldn’t have too much hope in Psystar making it out alive. Am I surprised? No, not in the least. Apple sued NYC for using a clip-art apple on it’s environmental campaign, of course they’re going to sue someone blatently selling non-Apple Mac-clones. My hope? Enough people got their hands on one to figure out how to reverse engineer the EFI emulation they’ve been using and get the osx86 success rate even higher. After quite a bit of tinkering, I have OSX Leopard running on an HP Tablet PC – and yes, the tablet works, pressure sensitivity and all. Is it perfect? Of course not – Leopard isn’t meant for an SSE2 processor, which is where most of the problems arise. But it is pretty cool? I think so. I’d like to try it on my desktop (SSE3 capable) sometime soon, but I need a large external harddrive, since the possibility of destroying everything on it is very real.

Also, I will meet the Chinese kids tomorrow night for dinner and tour the high school with them on Friday. I bought them some cheap plastic lead-covered novelties as a welcoming gift, to show them what we hold dear in this country. USA! USA!

‘learning experience’

Things I have used in the past month at work:

• c# / vb.net
• actionscript 3.0 + mxml
• javascript
• php
• apache
• nagios
• html / xml / css
• oracle / sql
• jsp
• linux (ubuntu / openSUSE / centos)

things I have actually studied for a significant amount of time:

• java
• html / xml / css

it has been and continues to be a learning experience. and by learning experience, i mean me learning how quickly I can get a headache.

“the google”

In an interview in which Republican candidates were polled concerning “Mac vs. PC”, John McCain said he was illiterate on the subject and needed his wife to do those things for him. Recently, one of his aides tried to clarify this by saying he was indeed “aware of the internet.”

As someone who spends at least 10-12 hours a day in front of a computer, this frightens me. And yes, I realize I put a much greater importance on computers and the internet than the average person – but when you start to recognize the coming global importance of new technology, the myriad of laws concerning the online and digital world that will come about soon, and the simple fact that the most powerful person in the world will need an aide to check his email for him, this should very much frighten you too.

And if you need further proof, go here. I’d really love to have heard the conversation that led them to believe it was a good idea to (poorly) replicate the ancient “Space Invaders” game in some ill-advised scheme to find common ground between today’s youth and a 70-year-old man.

My Sincere Gratitude

I’d like to extend a thank you to Michelle Malkin for opening my eyes to the very real and very present threat faced to us by yet another liberal Muslim group intent on destroying the way of life we hold so dear: Dunkin Donuts.

don’t worry, the social ladder is alive and well.

People will pay a premium for what they perceive to be superior, regardless of improved performance, extra functionality, etc. Not only that, but they will perceive what they are buying to be superior – even if evidence supports otherwise. Even if an unbiased source rates a Hyundai as a better all-around car than a Bentley, the wealthy will still prefer the latter and defend its superiority.

Logical people would search for the best option, most efficient, cheapest, longest-lasting, overall best product – regardless of perception or price. But we, the consumer generation, are hardly logical – it’s all about what you’re seen with and what the perception is of your possesions. The hope that we live in a time where the things we own do not own us is a naive one – Apple is not a brand of consumer electronics, it is a lifestyle.  Blu ray players, HDTVs – all status symbols, even though the normal person cannot tell the difference (or even understand what the numbers mean) between 480i, 720p, 1080i/p – from the distance in a living room or home setting that they’d be watching it at. But I’ll be damned if I don’t want that higher resolution, that larger external harddrive, the bigger monitor, more megapixels per inch per camera (even at 12″ by 18″, a 3mp camera will take just as good as a picture as a 6mp camera, but everyday consumers demand at least 7 or 8 megapixels to take pictures for 4×6 photo frames). We are taught to want more, that more is always better. We are told that we should want more than we can afford, that we should take outrageous loans to finance our expensive homes, regardless of if we’ll ever be able to pay them back. Run up credit cards, mortgages, whatever – it’s all free money. And this is what our economy is resting on – the hope of the middle class that they can spend like the rich and never have to come to terms with their paycheck.

future retrospect

I truly believe that looking back at this era we live in, people will view at Bill Watterson as being one of the true creative geniuses of our time, acting as comic, author, and social critic. He elevated the comic to a pedestal that had not been reached before, one of legitimate literary work capable of depth and character.

I think Garfield in its entirety will be viewed with contempt and disgust, as it should be.

The Internet as a Battlefield

There is a war going on where no bullet has been fired, and no country can claim responsibility for its inception. Its factions seem improbable, and the situation itself sounds ridiculous. But I would advise you not to take it lightly, as this holds every indication for the oncoming generation that we are a truly different breed than those who came before us.

Indy Auto Show 08

My annual visit to the Indy Auto Show, and the DIRE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES of what I saw. Okay, that might be exaggerating.

Dr. Beckerman

My doctor of many years passed away last week.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007711080331

He was an amazing man and the father of one of my best friends. He truly cared about each of his patients, and got to know us as individuals before treating us. When I was at the hospital earlier this year (for a rare bout with bacterial infectious colitis), he came to visit me just to check up and see how I was doing – because that’s how much he cared about each one of the people he helped.

It will be tough to find another doctor like him.