The JJW Blog

"They fought for civil rights, not imagining the masses were innocent and would do better without..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:42:04 -0700

“They fought for civil rights, not imagining the masses were innocent and would do better without government strictures. They worked for legislation that would have government institutionalize racial equality. The older people on the right are living in a society where pretty much anything goes. They seem to want to fight the government not in order to ensure rights for all, but to keep what they have.”

- Comment on David Brook’s argument that the Tea Party and the 60s left are more similar than different.

"Moreover, the whole idea behind the “health care as consumer” movement is that the..."

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:26:54 -0700

“Moreover, the whole idea behind the “health care as consumer” movement is that the problem is we use too much health care. If we spent more of our own money, we wouldn’t take those “recreational visits” to the emergency room or orthopedic surgeon. Two cracks in that theory. First, the research we have suggests people avoid both unneeded AND needed medical care when they pay the bills themselves. Secondly, the major reason we Americans spend so much more than, say, Canada or Germany, isn’t use rates, it’s prices. We pay more for everything we get from the health care system.”

- From here

Oh geesh, what a woman. nevver: Reading in Bed

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:47:04 -0700

Oh geesh, what a woman.

nevver:

Reading in Bed

nevver: Can I touch it?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:46:37 -0700

nevver:

Can I touch it?

Following Mr. Payton here and posting some revealing parts of...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:28:00 -0700

Following Mr. Payton here and posting some revealing parts of the NYT Interactive on the history of HC Reform. Seeing those who have come before and fought hard for incrementally better HC coverage and watching Obama’s speech to the AMA is making me feel bad about not lobbying doing more in my day for this great cause.

Matt Payton’s answers a Focus on the family survey.

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:23:51 -0700

Matt Payton’s answers a Focus on the family survey.

"The most ideologically devoted elements in both parties must accept that not every compromise is a..."

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:25:49 -0700

“The most ideologically devoted elements in both parties must accept that not every compromise is a sign of betrayal or an indication of moral lassitude. When too many of our citizens take an all-or-nothing approach, we should not be surprised when nothing is the result.”

- Evan Bayh

bitesurfer: stfuconservatives: bmckinney: caraobrien: wearet...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:44:43 -0700

bitesurfer:

stfuconservatives:

bmckinney:

caraobrien:

wearetheearth:

constantflux:

conjuredryad:No Impact Man: What if we create better world for nothing?

Now if only everyone understood this.

I will pretty much reblog this every time I see it on the dashboard.

Me too.

Feature checklist dysfunction

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:55:27 -0700

marco:

The tech press loves checklist comparisons. Let’s evaluate the iPhone to see whether it’s a good product:

Sounds like a terrible product. I bet it will fail.

Remember the MacBook Air’s launch?

Sounds like there’s no reason to buy one. (Like nearly everyone else, I complained about all of this when the Air launched. We all do it sometimes.) But it’s been very successful, especially in its later revisions, and the SSD models are great machines for people who travel a lot.

So it bothers me when either of two common failures occur.

Assumed equality

This is when a competitor advertises (and often, truly believes) that their product is at least equivalent to another one because it has checkboxes in many similar categories.

Since the iPhone’s launch, every other phone manufacturer has made competing phones with 3” touchscreens, music playback, and square app icons arranged in a 4x4 grid. (Well, except Microsoft’s hilarious interpretation.)

It’s like the CEOs commanded their engineering teams to come up with lists of the iPhone’s “features” and copy them so their phones would sell as well as the iPhone.

Every few months, the copy-list gets longer. Everyone just finished checking off their App Store box and is wondering when the developers are going to rush in.

Miscomparison

This happens when a geek or manager makes a list of features to compare two products and comes to an oversimplified conclusion based on which one has more checkmarks in its column.

The main problem is obvious: how do you determine which features go on the list? It can’t possibly be exhaustive enough to represent the entire experience of using the products, and it won’t be the same list for everyone.

Here’s why I decided not to use a Nexus One (or any other Android phone):

The Nexus One may be the better choice for people who care about what it does well, like synchronizing with Google’s services. But I don’t care about those things, and I do care about a lot of factors that the iPhone is a better fit for.

It would be ignorant and arrogant for me to presume that your priorities are anything like mine.

"Starting tomorrow until Valentine’s Day I’m going to post a series of makeout songs that to me would..."

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:54:18 -0700

“Starting tomorrow until Valentine’s Day I’m going to post a series of makeout songs that to me would result in a bra strap being wrapped around your finger instead of a promise ring.”

- http://mattpayton.tumblr.com

"[Cronkite was] the most trusted man in America. But here’s the thing, that title wasn’t bestowed on..."

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:28:43 -0700

““[Cronkite was] the most trusted man in America. But here’s the thing, that title wasn’t bestowed on him by a network. We weren’t told to believe it by some advertising campaign. It was earned. It was earned by year after year and decade after decade of painstaking effort; a commitment to fundamental values; his belief that the American people were hungry for the truth, unvarnished and unaccompanied by theater or spectacle.[Cronkite’s standard was] a little bit harder to find today [with] instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained…’What happened today?’ is replaced with ‘Who won today?’ The public debate cheapens.””

-
Barack Obama (via mattpayton)

The cost of IO ...

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:53:36 -0700

The cost of IO http://www.slideshare.net/marcusf/nonblocking-io-event-loops-and-nodejs

"What matters is if this interpretation of already existing technologies fit well with the needs of..."

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:36:00 -0700

“What matters is if this interpretation of already existing technologies fit well with the needs of today. I’ll leave the task of inventing new breaking things to CS departments as I’m a programmer and not a scientist, with all the limits and strengths that this implies. As long as we, programmers, developers, hackers, computer entusiasts, don’t realize that our work is an interpretation work, like architects, we will continue to be nerdy engineers that the society will continue to look [at as providing no] real value.”

- Redis developer Salvatore Sanfilippo http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1098184

Super charming website for this little old Denver bar. Love the...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:43:11 -0700

Super charming website for this little old Denver bar. Love the rollovers on the menu: http://www.billysinn.com/index.html.

"It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver,..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:27:00 -0700

“It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS. The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organizing the party.”

- http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html on the iPad.

"New Worlders have no reason to be gun-shy about loading up their device with apps. Why would that..."

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:05:41 -0700

“New Worlders have no reason to be gun-shy about loading up their device with apps. Why would that break anything? Old Worlders on the other hand have been browbeaten to the point of expecting such behavior to lead to problems. We’re genuinely surprised when it doesn’t.”

- http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/359224392/i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-computers-ive-been about the iPad.

mattpayton: - Justice John Paul Stevens Voices Frustration With...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:13:48 -0700

mattpayton:

- Justice John Paul Stevens Voices Frustration With Recent Decisions of Supreme Court - NYTimes.com

The key to successful apps on the iPad will be creating more...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:00:16 -0700

The key to successful apps on the iPad will be creating more realistic, engaging interfaces than even on the iPhone.

churchsignrevival: - Matt Have to reblog this one, so good!

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:15:39 -0700

churchsignrevival:

- Matt

Have to reblog this one, so good!

"The government likes to tout the number of jobs that have been created or saved by the stimulus. But..."

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:17:00 -0700

“The government likes to tout the number of jobs that have been created or saved by the stimulus. But even if these numbers are accurate, they do not count the number of jobs that are not created in other more productive or self-sustaining sectors of the economy.”

- Opinion piece by Ron Paul at http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/25/paul.stimulus.waste/index.html?hpt=C2

This review of the economy seems sane. However, I would like to hear some debate from other economists.