tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87073442012-01-02T11:58:28.333-08:00Thoughts about: Computer products Politics MusicBrian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.comBlogger2931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-37459774085096271352012-01-02T11:58:00.000-08:002012-01-02T11:58:28.348-08:00

This year, I'm listening to _why_ Iowans are choosing Gingrich over Romney. Simply put, they're deciding based on charisma. No candidate "excites" them. The last that did was Ronald Reagan. Listening to Romeny, you can hear he doesn't have a strong and compelling voice. Not just the words - written by whoever - but the physical properties of his voice. Obama has a great voice, commanding, subtle

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-79379668853490344382011-09-03T12:14:00.000-07:002011-09-03T12:14:56.928-07:00

It's time to boycott amazon.com . Simply put: they are evading US tax law, and they are killing local merchants and other online merchants. Amazon is acting badly - as a coperate citizen - by pressuring states into giving them tax free status. They are acting as bullies in our community. Amazon is supported by technologists and upper-middle-class spenders across America. We consider them

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-17527809943786533442011-08-31T01:14:00.000-07:002011-08-31T01:14:11.847-07:00

Foreign travel - in Europe - is foriegn-er than previously. How? Simple. My credit cards don't work. My phone doesn't (really) work. Most of the media (music, video) I use doesn't work. Physical maps are harder to come by. It's really that bad. About the only thing that does work is Kindle, because I've preloaded the content. Everything else is streaming, which means it only works in the

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-43593945507620574042011-08-14T10:24:00.000-07:002011-08-14T10:24:14.959-07:00

Last night, I experienced something amazing. Maybe it's a little geeky. Maybe you don't care about live music. If you do care, read on. I played a corporate gig last night (promo for Patron XO Cafe, some kind of coffee infused liquor), and we set up sound at the Lodge at the Regency. The sound guy came over and stood on stage next to me as he did the monitor mixes. That's not terribly unusual.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-64910466256473760542011-08-13T10:32:00.000-07:002011-08-13T10:32:06.247-07:00

1. Admit that the government has a positive role in American life - like creating jobs. 2. Continue normal levels of government spending. Fund NASA to get us back in space. Keep job-efficient funding like student loans, head start, vaccination programs, conservation, even Senate pages. Allow the postal service to exist. Fund the $10B per month employment insurance (Main Street Bailout) system.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-26835676757030532742011-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:002011-08-08T10:00:41.783-07:00

Obvious to anyone who looks at the numbers, taxes on the rich are too low. We raise those, and bring troops back from Iraq (50,000) and Afghanistan (120,000?), and we have the country's finance back on an even keel. The Republicans, and the Tea Party, must understand that the S&P's stance is against their position, not against congress as a whole. The GOP not being reasonable is the problem. One

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-23095284670690548712011-07-30T09:25:00.000-07:002011-07-30T09:25:19.773-07:00

The news industry is failing us, yet again. There is no analysis of what is really happening in washington. I certainly haven't heard or seen any. Both partisan sides say the other side is being unreasonable, that the other is inflexible. When we hear the GOP say the democrats want to raise tasex on small business and american families, which has simply never been true, repeated by the news

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-59156297445625666662011-07-25T01:05:00.000-07:002011-07-25T01:05:18.393-07:00

The Republicans sold America a story. Prosperity would come by giving tax breaks to everyone. They spent and they spent, all through the aughts. Remember how Bill Clinton gave them a budget surplus? They spent it. On tax cuts, including the fabulous 10% capital gains tax cut, down from %25 the decade before. Never has there been a 10% capital gains tax. Let's just re-examine the core messages.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-77750708103831558872011-06-08T14:54:00.001-07:002011-06-08T14:54:09.054-07:00

I've been using the Honeycomb tablet, with the keyboard and the touch screen, enough to start seeing the keypad and mouse as "dumb". Look at that nice clean apple UI with the ribbon bar - I want to flic the ribbon bar, and nothing happens. I tap on some apps, on the screen, and nothing happens. I consider calling over some of the apple help - there's clearly something wrong with this mac - when

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0International Terminal G, San Francisco, CA, United States37.617876 -122.391396tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-40053222811449340612011-06-04T09:07:00.001-07:002011-06-04T09:42:18.393-07:00

Unusually, I lived with both the xoom tablet, and the asus eee transformer. I love the android tablet experience. I expect it's better than a windows netbook experience, simply because the UI is more touch-friendly. The down-side is the lack of key PC apps, like office and netflix. Other than those two, I think a 10 inch android will beat a 10inch netbook any day. But - on to Xoom vs Asus. Most

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0Oil Changers, 944 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, United States37.467214 -122.156323tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-61420409595503983512011-04-08T10:26:00.000-07:002011-04-08T10:26:46.946-07:00

I'm still hating the press - and surly about Obama. Remember when Clinton stamped out Gingrich's "small government revolution"? Clinton made the case that Republican obstructionism was the cause. The government - our government - has an important role to play, not just siphoning the middle class' money to corporations. Obama, and the democrats are showing backbone, what the press has accused

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-76836246185857120172011-03-02T22:16:00.000-08:002011-03-02T22:16:40.798-08:00

Teachers wonder, why the scorn? Teachers, here this. We don't scorn you, but we do scorn the system you work under. The New York Times happily discusses the pay of a second year teacher. A second year teacher doesn't get scorn, they get praise, for working in difficult situations. The role of unions within school districts dismays and angers those of us who care about education - and that

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-78867357592663096372010-11-24T04:10:00.000-08:002010-11-24T04:10:03.614-08:00

After seeing the video of the sex worker who stripped down to her knickers and demanded a public invasive patdown, I was kind of looking forward to the whole charade. To my shock, I learned two things about San Francisco airport. First, no pornoscanners or agressive patdown. Second, there's no TSA in SFO. There's CSA (Covenant Aviation Security). Covenant Trucking is the one with the bible

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-55639957117266126792010-11-23T08:10:00.000-08:002010-11-23T08:10:14.298-08:00

Great article about Diaz, Whitman and the Unions What's to note here is that the union comes off as a "special interest". The union took the true story of a worker and publicised it. Meg's story of domestic help - mirrored by stories of here management of EBay - showed her as ruthless, coldhearted, and generally mean. These are all characteristics we should judge our leaders by, but often

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-91196473550689891772010-11-19T16:12:00.000-08:002010-11-19T16:12:27.459-08:00

Here's the interesting point about older generations - as most of the world is becoming - and growth. Monetary policy and economic policy is driven by spending. Old people are great: they create nothing, and spend everything. They're emptying out their bank accounts. What they spend on is a mixed bag. They don't buy music, or iPads, or new cars or houses. They spend most of their money on health

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-43264425546092214902010-10-19T12:11:00.000-07:002010-10-19T12:11:46.846-07:00

Actual reporting still happens. Rarely does one see a newspaper article willing to go beyond "he said she said" of partisan politics and take a position of fact. When it does, that newspaper should get the credit it deserves. O'Donnell implied strongly that the 1st Amendment doesn't include the separation of church and state, when any high school graduate should know that it does. O'Donnell

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-87006276744496866222010-10-17T16:40:00.000-07:002010-10-17T16:40:02.257-07:00

On the final page of the Kaiser Perminente application for health insurance is the following gem. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Permanente Insurance Company Arbitration Agreement: I understand that (except for Small Claims Court cases, claims subject to a Medicare appeals procedure, and, if I am enrolled in a group that is subject to ERISA, certain benefit-related disputes)

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-15281068008559326052010-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:002010-10-10T13:42:47.143-07:00

I will buy signed but not filled in California mail-in ballots for $40. Simply contact me, and we can meet. I'll hand over two crisp $20, you'll hand over the ballot, and we'll both walk away happy. After all, your single vote isn't worth much, right? Your vote doesn't count, and a few votes here and there won't swing the election. More than half of Californians vote by mail. Even though

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-10032193889744642362010-10-09T13:09:00.000-07:002010-10-09T13:13:31.085-07:00

A laundry list of what I like & dislike about Android 2.2 and my Samsung Galaxy i9000: Gripes - buy an EVO instead Awful GPS. The GPS in the Samsung i9000 is terrible. Awful. Unusable. Unusable for directions and routing. Widely reviled in all forums. I can't see why any reviewer would call this hardware acceptable given how LOUSY the GPS unit is. Location is the cornerstone of the wisephone

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-75306040534423027482010-10-05T10:03:00.000-07:002010-10-05T10:03:40.593-07:00

Great to see a release of this software, but it's got limitations and bugs. Going to Skype's website, my handset isn't supported. Odd that they say that: there isn't any support included with skype! But it's available in the marketplace, and the forums say it works fine on 2.2 with the Samsung Galaxy i9000. Several little flaws. 1) can't exit the app. Most apps, the 'back' button at the root

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-39344629095325217922010-10-04T09:59:00.000-07:002010-10-04T09:59:16.498-07:00

Today's announcement of the service lineup for GoogleTV (Android on TV) shows the brilliance of the Roku TV box. For $99, two years ago, I bought the "netflix streaming box" that's a pure IP device with 720p HD, Wifi, Ethernet, and HDMI. The box is tiny and simple - way ahead of its time. Every few months, new "channels" show up. What was first just streaming netflix with a cumbersome interface

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-30730010620451872182010-09-21T16:47:00.000-07:002010-09-21T16:57:17.677-07:00

Move to end 'Don't ask don't tell' stalls in SenateCome on, New York Times!It didn't 'stall', it was killed. Senate Republicans filibustered the bill. Don't hide behind an "attempt to fillibuster" or "cloture vote failed", it's a filibuster. Republicans killed the bill, using procedural gimmicks to prevent an up or down vote."Stalls" my ass.AP's title: "Republicans block bill to life military gay

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-24338723241136297122010-09-20T14:26:00.000-07:002010-09-20T14:34:42.691-07:00

Eric Goldman writes a very nice note about Scribd's changes in both user policy and the addition of a paywall.I'm sorry, Eric. I have some sympathy. Here I am putting my hard-fought words into Google's Blogger, and I don't know whether I can get them out. We both - we all - need a good publishing site.My sympathy is limited because you left out one possible answer: that you pay them. Flickr works

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-47177433688569459782010-09-20T11:36:00.001-07:002010-09-28T16:37:58.442-07:00

Today's news trumpets that the Great Recession is over.Time for a history lesson.The Bush recession started in November, 2007, a year before president Obama was elected. During the 2008 election, 6 months into the Bush recession, presidential candidate John McCain said the economy was "just fine". While there were a broad variety of causes behind the housing bubble and recession, such as

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-72381478145346728762010-09-18T09:38:00.000-07:002010-09-18T09:42:39.102-07:00

You Tube vs Fair Use : a responseJeff Atwood over at Coding Horror wrote about how "amazing" YouTube's fingerprinting system is, and how he doesn't like it.My response was rejected from his blog commentary, so I include it here.First, Jeff, I just don't understand why you thought fingerprinting was impossible. It seems straightforward to me, as long as you can create a good mathematical hash,

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-52268801912636998982010-09-14T08:55:00.000-07:002010-09-14T09:18:44.519-07:00

The "Taxed Enough Already" party - which seems comprised of older people receiving more benefits than paying taxes - and other moderates are tired of government inaction.Except when they oppose all government change. Like health care.The Democrats tried to change, the Republicans filibustered. The Republicans are the party of NO.The tax cuts for the super-rich provide the clearest example of

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-19114595041499940332010-09-12T08:18:00.000-07:002010-09-12T08:21:00.544-07:00

Yet again, doctors are not acting in the best interest of their patients.Cesareans more likely for women at for-profit hospitals (mercury news)What a great country we life in, where unnecessary surgery is recommended by that "trusted agent"!

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-87822169992981598322010-07-29T15:45:00.000-07:002010-07-29T15:53:22.889-07:00

A response to Mr. Stallman's top 25 questionsDear Mr. Stallman:I need to dig a hole in my yard. If I did it with my bare hands, my hands would become bruised, the task would take weeks, and I might not succeed.I tried to buy a shovel, but none are open source. As you point out, it's OK to buy open source shovels (free != gratis), but I can't buy one - for any price - that is open source.Each

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-65789694435918661772010-07-25T10:57:00.000-07:002010-07-25T11:00:31.638-07:00

In today's New York Times:"Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management.”Gentlemen, the patients want more care, more tests. The doctors want to treat more with more doctors. While you might have a burdensome bureaucracy, you currently have a functional health care

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-42264633332403535392010-07-16T11:11:00.000-07:002010-07-16T11:24:01.709-07:00

Ever wonder the lies the Red Cross tells?http://bit.ly/ddqLS0Every minute of every day, someone needs blood. That blood can only come from a volunteer donor, a person like you who makes the choice to donate. A bald faced lie. Why would the Red Cross, a venerable and much beloved world-wide charitable organization, lie?The lie is the word "volunteer".You can get blood from a paid blood donor.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-33522769282351478422010-07-09T13:15:00.000-07:002010-07-09T13:21:55.695-07:00

Yesterday's result that the defense of marriage act contravenes the 10th Amendment should give cheer to the Tea Partiers. As an independent movement devoid from slant toward one party or the other, they've seen that the government works, that Liberal judges can correctly apply the constitution and hew to its values against the pressure of Conservative bigotry.Somehow, I think they aren't going to

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-91549117117907467482010-07-01T15:13:00.000-07:002010-07-01T15:23:01.565-07:00

One quick note:America will be more competitive, and have higher quality of life, if our housing prices go down.Lower housing prices means a more mobile society, a higher percentage of disposable income. Standard wage earners ($10 to $15 an hour) should be able to afford something nice.For those of you who were treating your house as a piggy bank, I am sorry. But you have to look at the greater

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-46232973666209385972010-06-25T13:08:00.001-07:002010-06-25T13:10:41.025-07:00

This quote popped up today in an interview with the reporter who wrote the story - Michal Hastings - (picked up in the Huffington Post):In the hypercompetitive media world, some of the reaction to your story has been a little negative, that you have "hostile views" and that you're anti-war. Some have wondered how you could jeopardize your future access to sources. How do you respond to that?

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-30945181605060181032010-06-22T13:13:00.001-07:002010-06-22T13:20:44.371-07:00

President Obama, and the green wing of the Democratic party, came out in strength last week to promote less use of oil.By tying our individual use of oil to the spill, they've done a good deed. Just like polar bears and global warming, people have a picture in their minds. Drive a gas guzzler, oil a pelican.Too bad reality doesn't work that way.The Horizon spill is about government regulation,

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-69331405343859250802010-05-04T21:30:00.000-07:002010-05-04T21:38:50.739-07:00

I caught some of the Fox News manufactured controversy about giving the Times Square bomber miranda rights.The emotional reaction is strong. He attacked us. Punish! Punish!Glen Beck's response was strong and classic: this is not the time to trample the constitution.Still not the right answer. Miranda rights mean nothing. It's 4 sentences that every American knows. Police interrogators say the

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-67889921279140642812010-04-30T14:22:00.001-07:002010-04-30T14:28:59.358-07:00

Today Athem California removes its request for rate increases.Their strategic moves throughout health care will go down in history. Somehow, they managed to deflect the idea that this was entirely a ploy.The health care bill is excellent for current insurers - opposed to the alternatives. If we agree the current situation couldn't continue, the new solution - more customers, a hazy future public

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-69608753392952491132010-04-15T16:38:00.000-07:002010-04-15T16:46:10.024-07:00

Dear Mr Campbell:Mails such as yours cause me, a moderate democrat, to realize why I can't support you. I might support you as the most sensible Republican in this race, but I know by having talked to you that you have enough knowledge and smarts to understand the pack of lies you have spoke. These lies are the standard Republican lies.Let me address several in turn.1. Who is celebrating? I am

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-74980415677684993542010-03-24T04:40:00.001-07:002010-03-24T04:44:13.119-07:00

No, really.I want to know that my insurance company won't evict me, and won't hide behind "reasonable and customary", won't duck resolution of contract terms in a court of law.Maybe we need to wait a few years to get all the millions of people signed up and the taxes flowing and whatnot, but why can't I have a reasonable insurance system?Until that law is active - not just signed - I still say no

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-47595638720708461952010-03-21T23:06:00.000-07:002010-03-21T23:22:11.161-07:00

Dear President Obama,Thank you for the kind note today reiterating your campaign pledge: Yes We Can.I am fatigued, reading the blog posts by Republican after Republican stating the imminent death of America.National Review OnlineHerald Sun (Australia)Orange County RegisterFox News and Fox News againRush Limbaugh hasn't updated, here's his best shot tonight (left-corner)I like the part about more

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-89133714385397240252010-03-16T01:59:00.000-07:002010-03-16T02:01:38.924-07:00

This from the lead of Fox's web site on health care.This week will reveal the harsh reality of corruption in the Democratic leadership. All of the Democrat’s lip service on “change you can believe in” (Obama) and “cleaning up the swamp” (Pelosi) will be exposed as hollow and untrue.http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/15/andrea-tantaros-obama-pelosi-heath-care-democrats-abortion/Oh, wait, look

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-15246860944554736752010-03-15T12:31:00.001-07:002010-03-15T12:37:48.901-07:00

Dear Ron Paul Supporters,Please read, and carefully consider, the following post.http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whynojobsThat post explains why we're off the gold standard, and why the government can't be trusted with choosing the money supply. The system we've had through the Great American Century - a semi-independent Federal Reserve - is the best.Change it, and we do back to the booms and busts

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-71524989178125617682010-03-09T11:02:00.000-08:002010-03-09T11:10:59.676-08:00

Democrats I talk to say Obama's in the pocket of Wall Street, and only cares about bankers.Just like Tea Party folk, they claim no one is looking out for them.That statement flys in the face of reality.If the banks had failed in early '09, Main Street would have been crushed. Remember, we were that close. The FDIC is still in the red, after having closed a record number of underwater banks.But

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-74681392093134183632010-02-14T13:59:00.001-08:002010-02-14T14:25:18.077-08:00

Us "over the top" users are shut out of the Olympics. No olympics for me.The situation:NBCOlympics.com has almost no real content. It has some historical clips, some highlight reels. Very few, and each requires suffering through about 10 seconds of ads per 2 minute clip. Or, a 12 minute daily roundup that's 95% talking heads. I watched the roundup from yesterday. They have 1/3 of the gold-medal

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-40799779300345121362010-01-20T14:54:00.000-08:002010-01-20T15:20:27.502-08:00

One Year: Obama Pays the Pricehttp://bit.ly/7qUMnVI believe this article doesn't capture the meat of the situation.Part of Obama’s weakness has been this unwillingness or inability to say a few simple things passionately, which would let Americans know that he is on their side. Reagan knew how to do itObama has turned around a number of great quotes. He's expressed complicated ideas suscintly,

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-29400295914780623502010-01-02T09:29:00.001-08:002010-01-02T09:30:13.456-08:00

The New York Time's continuing investigation of ground beef:Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-26386858753438541492009-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:002009-12-21T22:50:56.951-08:00

Jane Hamsher wrote a list of 10 reasons to kill the Senate bill.Ezra Klein responded. He didn't go far enough. Here is my response.1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not.You want to buy health insurance.The fact that the price is now capped at 8% is a benefit. If *you* don't have health insurance, you're the working poor and

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-89114231582104812572009-12-14T10:45:00.001-08:002009-12-14T11:16:51.368-08:00

The twists and turns of health care debate have me thinking about California's legislature.We can't pass a budget. We can't make a good choice about water. Our term limits throw power to lobbyists, we had third-world power outages. We can't manage to fund and improve our universities, or educate our kids (hello, Oakland Unified! How's that state takeover working?).A "failed state" is how we talk

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-91707668197540090312009-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:28:30.048-08:00

According to this poll, just about 60% of Americans want a public option in their health care.http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5B20OL20091203The current senate rules require 60% of senators to pass a bill, and the Republican 40% represents 35% of the population.Thus, our government is working as designed. Republicans have repeated over and over that government doesn't work, and we

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-51236039409036136212009-11-29T11:00:00.001-08:002009-11-29T11:01:43.237-08:00

A rather terrible story about a woman who had her two front teeth stolen by a crazy person on SF Muni (lesson: stay on the bus, it has video). She spent two days in the hospital recovering.Here's the amazing part:Added insult: Despite having health insurance, Aronson says she was saddled with more than $11,500 in hospital and medical bills - including the $4,500 it cost for her replacement

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-33964425928997249752009-11-21T12:01:00.000-08:002009-11-21T12:04:49.524-08:00

Republicans don't want health care to be debated.They're simply not willing to enter into a Senate debate on the topic. Ever, one imagines.It's time to play the "up or down vote" card. When discussing with your friends and family, please needle your Republican friends for the obstructionism of the Republican party.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-41136650090444394602009-11-19T02:12:00.000-08:002009-11-19T02:25:18.328-08:00

I thought I'd do some Ruby vs Python microbenchmarks, for fun. I like microbenchmarks, as they tell you about the speed of specific components of a language.My general results are that Ruby 1.8 is aweful (10x slower in bad cases, "only" 2x slower in good cases), and Ruby 1.9 and Python 2.6 are about the same (20% here and there, python faster).But trying go --- I couldn't write the same code. Why

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-44507302377640939992009-11-11T15:33:00.000-08:002009-11-11T15:38:09.477-08:00

Republican Senator Brownback is worried that America will reproduce Japan's "painful" lost decade by following a policy of stimulus.In the lost decade, there was no growth.No growth! Wonderful! Instead of quarter after quarter contraction? 10% contractions are painful. An unemployment rate of %15 (California's U5) is painful.No growth I can handle.Bank failure and famine are painful - that's what

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-50224313654467675222009-11-09T10:34:00.001-08:002009-11-09T10:39:11.173-08:00

The last 8 years of tax cuts for the rich should have taught us one thing:Tax cuts at the upper reaches don't make good economic sense.I heard that the Bush presidency was the worst two-term performance in history. Family income fell. Everything's aweful.Obama played into the myth by saying we needed to keep the tax cuts because eliminating them during a recession would do more harm than good (

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-28045556795241110232009-10-27T16:31:00.001-07:002009-10-27T16:34:20.600-07:00

Now Lieberman becomes the senator who prevents a public option.Why can't Reid use the old language of the Republicans, and "demand an up or down vote"?Let the Republicans fillibuster. Remember Clinton's finest hour, when he convinced the country that the Republicans were the "party of no"?Americans want health reform.Americans want a public option, because they know private insurers can't be

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-10577019379640539802009-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:002009-10-07T10:17:51.391-07:00

In foreign countries, your Credit card doesn't work at many kiosks:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/travel/04pracchip.htmlbecause we don't have the little smart chip thing in our cards.Our "fail" on the portual trip involved the many toll roads in Portugal. Travelling northbound, carolyn got in the automatic payment lane by mistake, so we got to a toll later with no ticket. There was a missing

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-26315556994439049602009-09-28T16:33:00.000-07:002009-09-28T16:36:14.533-07:00

The Dems need to force the republians to fillibuster health care."We think American's health care demands a vote.""Republicans say America's current health cafe system, which results in XX,000 untimely deaths and billions overspent compared to any other advanced country in the world, is worth the fight of their lives.""To make sure that the uninsured stay uninsured, Senator McCain is reading from

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-91270480648779506132009-09-27T19:12:00.000-07:002009-09-27T19:15:45.825-07:00

Slate describes the Medicare ESRD program that pays for kidney care:Deep into the article ---In 2007, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a report that for-profit dialysis centers had also been overprescribing an expensive anemia drug. In an effort to boost certain blood levels to suggested levels, which is done elsewhere through optimal dialysis runs, the for-profit centers

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-16431077906381652542009-09-08T11:05:00.000-07:002009-09-08T11:34:32.590-07:00

Great blog post title - American Political Dialog is Stuck On StupidRupert Murdoch, under the direction of Fox News, is trying to bring down America.The GOP is taking cover behind Fox News' bizarre lies.The GOP did this to itself when it made the deal that took in the 'solid south', that moved, as a block, bigots from the Democrats to the Republicans. When Reagan took in the Christians, the

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-66782768084023504982009-09-03T21:54:00.001-07:002009-09-03T21:58:23.758-07:00

The lead story right now:Obama urged to rally support for warhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB125201944159884863.htmlThe article is a vehicle to express that public opinion polls are showing a lack of support for the war in Afghanistan.Finally, in the fourth paragraph, we learn WHO is doing the urging."a growing number of lawmakers"The only one mentioned by name is representative Casey.Be sure:

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-80517078282045483742009-09-01T08:57:00.001-07:002009-09-01T09:06:44.865-07:00

I call top.I believe the market has hit it's local maximum. It's sometime around now. America must start living with 15% unemployment, and worse. Those unemployment benefits are going to start running out. We've just had the largest "dead cat bounce" in living memory, and it's all going to get worse from here.We're now in June, 1930, when it seemed that the worst crash in history was coming to a

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-35915019078953214802009-08-19T10:45:00.000-07:002009-09-01T09:12:10.162-07:00

I read an article this morning about how Obama should stop refuting the "death panel" claim. Refuting the claim gives it credence.The article complained about "the media's" treatment of the issue. I've been sickened by the treatment, too.But doing some research, it's pretty clear what happened.* Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, O'Reilly pushed the "death panel" idea. Palin picked it up.* All the other

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-22102694868785224142009-08-18T10:07:00.000-07:002009-08-18T10:24:56.343-07:00

What does health reform without the public option look like?It looks like our current system.In my area, and in many areas of the country, Kaiser Permanente is a well regarded non-profit health care provider. Its fees are about the same as Blue Cross, but it has a reputation for more honesty and less care.Kaiser is still medically underwritten, which is code for "no pre-existing conditions".I

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-16046851854441562862009-08-14T12:14:00.001-07:002009-08-14T13:42:46.161-07:00

I just got off the phone with Kaiser. I asked the cost of some basic services.Let's say I walked into an ER. I talked to one doctor, not a specialist, and walked out. The service rendered is exactly specified, to a lay person.The Kaiser representatives I talked to wanted to know my age, and what plan I would be under. At first, they claimed they would need to ask medical questions -

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-73556606219326911992009-08-10T12:30:00.000-07:002009-08-10T12:31:29.840-07:00

Obama now has a Hulu channel. He posts 5 minutes a week.Don't you have 5 minutes a week to listen to your president?http://www.hulu.com/obamas-weekly-addresses

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-25450223760997691212009-08-05T21:35:00.000-07:002009-08-05T22:03:30.542-07:00

Bob Cesca over at the huffington Post has a great point:"Keep your goddamn government hands off my Medicare!"It really is an awesome point.The agitators against Government Rationing are people who get "socialized, rationed" healthcare.30 year olds are saying "huh? you just have to live until you're 65 and *everything's free*? But, as a working, contributing memory of society, I get the big middle

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-33848823447912339872009-08-02T15:39:00.000-07:002009-08-02T15:44:30.843-07:00

I will post a zip file of my little microbenchmark file soon.The benchmark was done on .NET 2.0 in July, 2009.The benchmarks were run under Visual Studio 2005, thus using .NET 2.0. However, the machine had all versions of .NET runtime installed and fully patched (1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5) and I have no idea whether there's a single runtime or multiple runtimes that get invoked.The same benchmark

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-15786007471514105332009-08-02T15:28:00.000-07:002009-08-02T15:38:35.317-07:00

Two questions should be answered:Is iteration of List constant time, or linear? How does it compare to iteration of arrays?Is 'foreach' iteration, which is syntactically much nicer, that much slower? How much slower?List iteration is constant time, just like arrays. It doesn't matter if you use positional iteration forward, or positional backward. It's all about the same. Oddly, iterating Lists

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-48418101939709591042009-08-02T14:54:00.001-07:002009-08-02T15:28:46.738-07:00

All the documentation you read expresses how much faster ListDictionaries are than standard Dictionaries. But ListDictionary doesn't support generics, and maybe your dictionaries are going to grow larger over time. Are they worth using?Regrettably, ListDictionaries are really that much faster than a standard Dictionary. And HybridDictionaries are a reasonable tradeoff between Dictionary and

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-36983855223205534682009-08-02T14:16:00.000-07:002009-08-02T15:45:10.379-07:00

List has a number of great features. Extensibility, deletion, fast tail add. Arrays are fixed size and should be much faster, right?Well, yes, sort of. Lists are still really fast. Contrary to MSDN's documentation (and common sense), Lists are constant-time insertion at the tail. There is little benefit to creating a List with the correct size - the auto-resize functionality of List is well

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-26152379987333039562009-08-02T11:54:00.000-07:002009-08-02T15:46:41.467-07:00

I've been doing some work in C# recently.Unlike Java, the Collection class hierarchy is simple. There are few choices regarding which collection to use when, but there are some choices.Benchmarking and advice from MSDN appears to be old, back from the 1.0/1.1 days. The underlying .NET VM, and the compiler, has improved.How to code c# in a 2009 environment?Let's look at Dictionary vs

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-58811296014187630672009-07-20T13:09:00.000-07:002009-07-20T13:30:18.000-07:00

Steele -- the man who supports Rush Limbaugh's "I want Obama and the democrats to fail" --Proposes an alternate plan for health care.Don't change the system much. Keep the costs super high. Continue unnecessary procedures. Create more specialists and fewer GPs. Keep the waste in our system.Just tinker around the edges - like covering more people through government spending.Then, the GOP complains

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-21527279066477775312009-07-18T11:49:00.000-07:002009-07-18T12:06:41.868-07:00

I will be saving 190 gallons of gas this year. That's a little over a ton of CO2. With no real change to my lifestyle: pure efficiency.How did I do it?I bought a garmin 265T and upgraded the firmware. My gas consumption went from 19 MPG to 25 MPG.Ok, that's a lie.I received the 265T as a gift. But my gas milage has gone up that much.I rush less on my long miles around the bay area. The 265T has

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-61725911255348418332009-07-11T10:59:00.000-07:002009-07-11T11:07:26.032-07:00

Scrub tech causes major hepatitis scare in Colo.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/11/national/a082036D04.DTLWhat happened next shocked the family. They were notified that their son is one of 6,000 patients who may have been exposed to hepatitis C by a painkiller-addicted technician who had the disease and allegedly passed on dirty syringes to patients.....She tested

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-12056095316477432922009-07-08T16:31:00.000-07:002009-07-08T16:33:24.459-07:00

"How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist" isn't a scare piece, it's the story of our health care system.If you're healthy, and you think our system works, read it.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-76928725978586290352009-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:002009-07-07T15:32:24.678-07:00

"triggered public provision"?Triggered on what?Currently, I have health care I hate. Substandard service at extraordinary prices. I don't get the care I might need at risk it'll show up on my permanent record.I can't determine the cost of health care before getting care.What further trigger do you need?

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-53394672415926754892009-06-21T12:50:00.000-07:002009-06-21T13:04:31.981-07:00

Feinstein sides with Republicans about health careShe's saying the Democrats don't have the votes - and she says the Democrats may not have her vote. That's called siding with the Republicans.Cost, cost, cost. They're worried about the cost of a government-sponsored plan.Look, I don't get it.Insurance companies make profits of billions and billions of dollars.Of course, they resort to illegal

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-76362972549302740642009-06-08T11:05:00.000-07:002009-06-08T11:35:55.904-07:00

I read a post yesterday about GM's incompetence, reflecting on Saturn. The writer commented that GM threw away Saturn's lead, pushing Opel designed cars after setting up a brand based on youth and reliability - and that GM still has unreliable cars, unrecommendable by consumer reports.I'll agree with the second statement, and it's easily validated, but starry eyed nostalgia for the early days of

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-48125742551670331932009-06-05T11:06:00.000-07:002009-06-05T11:07:42.598-07:00

Atul Gawande get medicine rightThis article is the most important you'll read on Health Care Reform this year.Maybe this decade.Just read it.http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-29158516134624704042009-06-01T09:45:00.000-07:002009-06-01T09:49:12.481-07:00

All this ink spilled ---What about GM china?GM is the largest single automaker in (a very fractured) Chinese market.The Wuling is their hitThe standard corporate puff piece about how great GM's Chinese business isTime to revisit corporate boards here in America. American sense of entitlement isn't' just at the worker level -- it goes all the way up to the CEO.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-8657500906612013772009-05-17T10:27:00.000-07:002009-05-17T10:40:37.719-07:00

Cornell physics geek survives mushroom poisoning, a thought-provoking blog entry.First thought:A case study in exactly what's wrong with our medical system.Guy poisons himself. He sensibly determines he's "just sick", so he doesn't go to a doctor. He has no doctor to go to. No one to call. He shows up at an emergency room, poisoned, first thing in the morning, with the offending mushroom. There's

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-69759405884599993782009-05-13T11:59:00.000-07:002009-05-13T12:11:06.256-07:00

In the discussion about health care, there is discussion about getting non-emergency cases out of emergency rooms.Realize two things:* Our for-profit hospitals want the most possible traffic in their emergency rooms. They get less hassle from insurance companies, and they can charge more.* Patients can't judge whether something's an emergency or not. Their only answer is to show up at an

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-62140272453767602742009-05-13T11:04:00.000-07:002009-05-13T11:59:32.356-07:00

Health insurance is up for public debate again. Goody.I'm glad that Obama is moving the debate from "insured" vs "uninsured" to cost and quality of care. The costs we pay are astonishing, our quality of care is marginal.A few months ago, I had a run-in with the medical establishment. There was nothing special, it was typical, and it was terrible, show both astonishing cost and lack of care.In

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-68303714442511134132009-05-07T09:16:00.000-07:002009-05-07T09:26:49.926-07:00

This Wired article has me thinkingThey point out that the DVD is covered by DCMA because it has encryption, where the CD is not. They point out the absurdity of that situation.Interestingly, they're only half right.The DVD format itself does not not requre CSS. DVDs can be created with, or without, CSS. The DVDs I author at home obviously don't have CSS, which means they're not covered by the

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-37475722148018986962009-05-06T23:13:00.000-07:002009-05-06T23:32:51.426-07:00

The San Francisco newspaper characterizes Obama's tax changes as a hunt for revinue, contrary to Obama's assertion that it's about incenting investment in America.It's a good point to debate, though.A few years ago, I had a contract in the UK. Although I'm clear what the tax law was, the principles behind the tax law seemed vague.Work taxed where physically done seems strange for knowledge

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-29445696862616510582009-05-05T10:11:00.000-07:002009-05-05T10:24:05.550-07:00

I use windows. I admit it. It's reliable, it's fast, I don't have to mess with it.But its command line is troublesome. I've bought VMWare Workstation, and run Linux as a guest, for all my development needs, but sometimes I have to do something tech-ish in windows.I've come to the conclusion that, for me, the shell is best used for ls, cp, mv, grep/find, and execute program.Anything heavyweight I

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-57116046602605436652009-05-04T12:25:00.000-07:002009-05-04T12:51:29.477-07:00

The swine flu story is receeding, bringing us back to torture.Slate's latestI have been dreading the day when we are held collectively accountable for torture, and Abu Graib, and Guantanamo. In the last few years I've been wondering, over and over, what more to do, how to change America. I took the path most Americans have: since I can't object from the military, since protests don't work, I have

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-43927642663388160172009-04-24T11:32:00.000-07:002009-04-24T12:18:35.492-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s2gjwUxoYgI almost don't want to include this; I'm still fuming.O'reilly's arguments / assertions:1) We can't prosecute torturers because it's divisive and creates bitterness.Great, Bill. So we're not a nation of laws. We're a nation of the powerful on one side, and the scared on the other. I thought this was the greatest country on earth, the land of the free and

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-65623166485819505392009-04-23T12:07:00.000-07:002009-04-23T12:36:11.783-07:00

A chowhound article inspires me to write some more specific rules.I do not pretend these rules are well known. I propose them.1) Announce your intentions when sitting down. If you plan to keep your phone in view, say "I always worry my mother's about to die, even though she's in the best of health. Silly, eh?" or "I'm sorry, my work requires 24 hour on call so I must keep an eye out for messages.

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-87294677871526929812009-04-22T15:55:00.000-07:002009-04-22T16:19:34.512-07:00

From today's Reich Salon article, we get Reich's opinion of the bailouts:The last grade is for the bank bailouts. I give them an F. I'm a big fan of this administration, but I've got to be honest. The bailouts are failing. So far American taxpayers have shoveled out almost $600 billion. Yet the banks are lending less money than they did five months ago. Bank executives are still taking home

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-79375406351719356612009-04-21T23:42:00.001-07:002009-04-21T23:52:31.757-07:00

One of those 2 + 2 = 4 moments.Salon writes their report on today's revelations regarding Bush's torture regime:1. SERE training was taken from Korean-war techniques. (Of course, the water torture goes further back).2. The purpose of those techniques were to elicit false confessions, not interrogation.3. The Bush administraiton wanted a link between al-Queda and Iraq.4. SERE techniques were

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-55042876711387036512009-04-13T09:37:00.000-07:002009-04-13T10:49:23.714-07:00

I must have been under a rock.A phenom has swept the mobile-enabled world (ie, Japan), but not the US.Nokia supports 'em. Samsung might. Maybe Apple will soon.Typing in URLs and contact info on lousy phone keyboards is painful and error prone.So use a 2D barcode!Or read more about 'em

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-56251060653701508032009-04-06T12:19:00.000-07:002009-04-13T09:37:51.508-07:00

About Rick Wagoner.Read any press, the consensus is he's run GM poorly for years.But GM has so many shares that no one can get enough percentage to unseat Mr Wagoner.Poor toothless board.Mr Wagoner bumbles on and destroys American industry, and families, more surely than Godzilla in downtown Tokyo.One day the US government steps in, and does what a sensible board should have done years ago."Your

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-19419989055775814892009-04-06T11:15:00.001-07:002009-04-06T11:24:13.025-07:00

I had this weird experience.I went to the safeway a few weeks back, and checked on my leading-market indicator, which is the price of a 12-pack of Diet Coke.Coke does incredible market research, and needs to move cans. They sell at a huge markup, and want to maintain or gain market share. During November, December, and January, the discount on Diet Coke was astonishing.A few weeks ago, those

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-19663091186941715742009-03-30T11:36:00.001-07:002009-03-30T12:07:22.876-07:00

Salon asks why the auto makers are being treated differently from wall street.Author Andrew Leonard gets a detail: this is Obama's first shot at putting his own stamp on "bailout". We're only 70 days into the Obama presidency - most of the bank bailouts happened on Bush's watch. Obama can form a new template.He misses the big picture.When you do the math, the number of jobs created and maintained

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-70249664229060876972009-03-24T10:09:00.000-07:002009-03-24T10:16:48.615-07:00

Paul Krugman says today that Geitner's plan only works if the system is fundamentally solvent.He's wrong.If his "plan B" is true, and banks have too many bad loans, then the Geitner plan creates the right platform to fix the problem.With unpricable assets on the books, banks can argue this way, that way about whether they're still solvent.With them removed, we can get to the bottom line of the

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-49406235769972540972009-03-23T09:40:00.000-07:002009-03-23T10:16:57.607-07:00

Word of the day is "weasles" - ie, government workers.Lots of ink spilled about why the "bad bank" approach is bad.When you read/hear those analysis - ask yourself what approach is better. Because we're in a bad situation. All solutions will be distasteful.First approach - let the banks fail into bankruptcyHave the courts reorganize the debit. Proponents of the approach forget that the economic

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-14559342264250754472009-03-16T10:49:00.000-07:002009-03-16T18:15:11.152-07:00

1. pyProcessing is a small, simple modules that does about what you'd like. It creates a 'Process' abstraction that's the same as a python Thread, except it's multi-core capable.There is a long discussion on Python-dev dated about March 2008 regarding whether to include pyProcessing in the 2.6/3.0 release frame or whether to wait a year. It seems it's included in 2.6, but its name has changed to

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-44903780124891507932009-03-14T09:35:00.000-07:002009-03-14T09:50:19.049-07:00

Obama's new tack: blaming BushRare is it to see partisan politics invading above the fold Washington Post. I'm worried this could be a turning point against Obama.If you switch your TV to "fox news" as I did a few days ago while on ski vacation, you'll see the "news" that obama is dishonest, is taking the economy down ("the obama economy continues its free fall"), is raising taxes, and is

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-33060832449918632009-03-06T09:56:00.000-08:002009-03-06T10:24:36.709-08:00

A good friend of mine had both a Dash and a Nuvi, and opted for the Nuvi - palmed the Dash off on me. I've been a fairly happy Nuvi owner since late december (2008), and after a week feel confident giving some impressions.NuviLots of attention to detail in the UI that makes the Nuvi pleasant. It's a single purpose device, straightforward. Want to go somewhere? Yes, I'll take you there.Let me give

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707344.post-54407598655916485962009-03-04T11:07:00.001-08:002009-03-04T11:13:03.675-08:00

Search "latitude"Can you really tell me that the little known Google location service is the second most linked to out of 90,000,000 pages?Reminds me of when Google couldn't get it's Finance property off the ground against Yahoo - until it made Google Finance the number one result for any search for a stock ticker.[And, on the topic of Latitude, Google's missed the mark with its beta. I need to

Brian Bulkowskihttps://profiles.google.com/108594259958339935284noreply@blogger.com0