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Missing Links, June 2nd Edition June 2, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in Apple/AAPL, Constitution, Economics, General Programming, Politics (Ghahh!).
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Some economics links:

Other miscellaneous links:

Some programming stuff, mostly ASP.Net.  It has been all .Net, all the time.  Mostly, I’ve been pleased.  Google has definitely been my friend:

Focus and Concentration May 16, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in General Interest.
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Another Times article:  The Science of Concentration.  Here’s an extended quote from the later part:

Ms. Gallagher advocates meditation to increase your focus, but she says there are also simpler ways to put the lessons of attention researchers to use. Once she learned how hard it was for the brain to avoid paying attention to sounds, particularly other people’s voices, she began carrying ear plugs with her. When you’re trapped in a noisy subway car or a taxi with a TV that won’t turn off, she says you have to build your own “stimulus shelter.”

She recommends starting your work day concentrating on your most important task for 90 minutes. At that point your prefrontal cortex probably needs a rest, and you can answer e-mail, return phone calls and sip caffeine (which does help attention) before focusing again. But until that first break, don’t get distracted by anything else, because it can take the brain 20 minutes to do the equivalent of rebooting after an interruption. (For more advice, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab.)

“Multitasking is a myth,” Ms. Gallagher said. “You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.

“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.” [emphasis mine]

Her book is Rapt, at Penguin.com.

Pogue on What’s *Really* Important in Technology May 16, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in Apple/AAPL, Technology, Video/Photography.
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NY Times article on what matters in technology–not what they tell you is important:

  1. Camcorders.  Out:  Zoom; In:  Wide-Angle.
  2. SLRs.  Out:  Megapixels; In:  Sensor-size.
  3. Cellphones.  Out:  Coverage; In:  Coverage.  The problem is, the coverage claims by the various providers sucks, no matter what.
  4. Computers.  Out:  Price; In:  Value.  (Gee, is he talking about Macs?  Yep.)

Links for Selection Sunday March 15, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in Uncategorized.
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Go Terps!

Better control of Safari through Saft.  We’ll see what happens with Safari 4.0.

I need to start researching Wikis for the SEVIS II working groups.

The case for due diligence in research.  In particular, around climate research and the public availability of data and code used to perform analysis.

How Harding fought off the Depression of 1920-22.  And it wasn’t through massive government expansion.

Privacy settings everyone should use in Facebook.

Normblog:  One-eyed in Gaza.  Once again, all of the international outrage has been reserved for Israel in its attempts to defend itself.

Reason magazine on Liberaltarianism.  As I stated in a comment on VodkaPundit–why the hell should Libertarians be trying to tie themselves to either of the big parties?  They’re both corrupt to the core.  ”Sleeping with lepers only makes your penis fall off.”  I think that’s one of my funniest lines ever.  But that’s just me.

Steve McIntyre, at Climate Audit, has some choice words over the use of principal components in the temperature analysis of the Antarctic.  I can’t say I have a real deep understanding of the concepts, but it seems to be related to eigenvalues (and eigenvectors), and the attempt to create “virtual” representatives of larger datasets.  Here’s a long article on Principal Component Analysis, which is a huge deal in statistics and analysis.  I need to read it.  Here’s a book written by one of the big minds in the field.

The risk analysis formula that destroyed Wall Street.  There’s an old adage–”if everyone else is doing it, you’d better start running in the opposite direction.”  A definite truth for the current crisis.  Everyone started using this formula to analyze their level of risk regarding the derivatives that were ubiquitous in the markets.  Which pretty much made them all subject to any gaps or flaws that existed.

Boyd on Strategy.

Bloggingheads TV on the Stimulus.

Atlas is Shrugging March 15, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in Constitution, Politics (Ghahh!).
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And Ayn Rand is rolling over in her grave:

Tim Neal of Miller County was shocked recently when he heard a radio program about a strategic report compiled by state and federal law enforcement agencies to combat terrorism.

Titled “The Modern Militia Movement,” the report is dated Feb. 20 and designed to help police identify militia members or domestic terrorists. Red flags outlined in the document include political bumper stickers such as those for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, talk of conspiracy theories such as the plan for a mega-highway from Canada to Mexico and possession of subversive literature.

But when Neal read the report, he couldn’t help but think it described him. A military veteran and a delegate to the 2008 Missouri Republican state convention, he didn’t appreciate being lumped in with groups like the Neo-Nazis.

“I was going down the list and thinking, ‘Check, that’s me,’ ” he said. “I’m a Ron Paul supporter, check. I talk about the North American union, check. I’ve got the ‘America: Freedom to Fascism’ video loaned out to somebody right now. So that means I’m a domestic terrorist? Because I’ve got a video about the Federal Reserve?”

Wow.  Just … wow.

We are marching down the path to fascism.  And it is truly of Leftist origins.

I didn’t support Ron Paul.  I think the guy’s a wack-job with respect to foreign policy.  I absolutely agree with much of his domestic and economic policies though.  And I certainly entertained voting Libertarian or Constitution Party last November.  I have enormous concerns about the abrogation of our Constitution by government officials in the name of “internationalism”.  Or worse, “domestic safety”.

Further, rumor has it that President Obama is voicing support for the ICC.  That immediately puts our military at risk of being brought before international courts for “war crimes”, said crimes being determined by people most definitely not supporting our national self-interest.  Which means that any military action contemplated by us will necessarily be viewed through the prism of international “political correctness”.

Where do we go from here, people?

Superbowl Sunday Links February 1, 2009

Posted by nukemhill in Apple/AAPL, Constitution, Economics, Environment, General Programming, Judaism/Israel, Politics (Ghahh!), Technology, WoT.
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Evolution: Not Just a Theory.

Robert Kiyosaki:  Conspiracy of the Rich.

Apple’s AppStore:  Will it change the desktop market?

Tech Soup:  Not just for kids!

Manning Early Access:  ASP.Net MVC In Action.

Michael Yon:  Irregular Warfare.

Belmont Club:  Fun with maps.

Speculation (US Army War College, Winter ‘92):  The Military Coup of 2012.

MacObserver Forums:  The House That Steve Built.

Omnivoracious:  Ranking The Classics.

Calvin and Hobbes:  Modern Day Capitalism.

Reason:  The Libertarian Moment.

IBD:  Drilling Down the Deficit.  And HotAir’s take.

Popular Mechanics:  New Green Homes.

Web 2.0:  Ten Insightful Books (video).

T.J. Rodgers on PajamasMedia:  Why Financial Statements are so Screwed Up.

Minneapolis Fed:  Myths and Facts about the Financial Crisis of ‘08.

Economist:  Blockages in the money supply.

Armed and Dangerous:  Timing the Entitlements Crash. Also:  Why Alt-Energy Isn’t (yet, in my book).

Cato:  On the Market.

Forbes:  Does Stimulus Stimulate?

Michael Totten @ Winds of Change:  Who Really Won the Second Lebanon War (and it wasn’t Hizbollah!).

ASP.Net:  Strongly-typed DataSets.

Bush in 2006:  Creation of Military Commissions to try Suspected Terrorists.

Wiki:  Business Process Management.  This may be the core of what we’re trying to accomplish at AIPT.

Google Search:  Ethical Capitalism.

Wiki:  Schrodinger’s Cat.

Professionals for Cyber Defense.

Technology Review:  Sun + Water = Fuel.

Yes, I’ve been hoarding.  Why do you ask?

SiteMeter Sucks September 14, 2008

Posted by nukemhill in Blogging.
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Okay, Steve.  SiteMeter Sucks.

Glenn Beck Nails It September 12, 2008

Posted by nukemhill in Sarah Palin.
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Glenn Beck writes a commentary over at CNN.com addressing some of the more ridiculous claims against Sarah Palin.  It is about as to-the-point and fact-filled as one can get.

Home Run.

Palin Smears, Continued September 11, 2008

Posted by nukemhill in Sarah Palin.
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With respect to our ongoing actions in Iraq, Sarah Palin has been deliberately (shocker, I know) misquoted.

What she said:

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

Note the bolded section.  This clearly, contextually, indicates she is requesting of God that our leaders are taking right action.  She is not declaring or stating that it is so.

How the AP bowdlerizes the quote:

“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”

Notice something missing?  Yeah.  Me too.  They turn her prayer from a request to a statement of fact.

And now that the meme has been created, it is being perpetuated.  From ABC’s extensive 2-day tag-along and interview with her:

Sarah Palin on God:

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

Please.  The next time someone tells you the press isn’t biased?  Just point them here.  This is a perfect example of just how bad it has gotten.

I weep for this country.

<HT:  HotAir>

Time for a Link Dump September 10, 2008

Posted by nukemhill in Economics, Environment, Investing, Politics (Ghahh!), Sarah Palin, Technology, WoT.
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Too many open windows in Safari, so it’s time to clean up.  Here are some of the things I’ve been interested in:

  • Unlocking the Auction-Rate Mess at Barron’s:  ”Retail and institutional investors alike loaded up on auction-rates in recent years, assuming they were almost as liquid as cash. Generally, investors can opt to sell such securities at weekly or monthly auctions — or at least they could until the investment banks stopped bidding on them last winter. The result: Holders of $330 billion of securities quickly found they had no buyers, and no way of unlocking their money.”  Much more where that came from.
  • Alt-Energy ETFs.
  • A look at the Annenberg Challenge, which is still causing quite the controversy.  Stanley Kurtz over at The Weekly Standard is still digging around.  I’m actually thinking he won’t find anything, but Obama and his clan certainly didn’t do themselves any favors by trying to bury the data.
  • Should Google Go Nuclear?  A video of a presentation done at Google by Bussard.
  • Articles, at The Economist and The Wall Street Journal (here, too), on the Russian invasion of Georgia.
  • Houston Chronicle on Sarah Palin’s knowledge of the energy industry.  Bottom line:  a lot.
  • Liberal Arrogance at Bidinotto.
  • How The Surge Worked.  And, uh, for the few clueless wonders who still believe otherwise?  It did.  Even Obambi is grudgingly admitting to it.  Months and months after the rest of the world got it.
  • The best gaming-PC money can buy.
  • Omnivoracious:  The Best Business Books Ever.