Hedonistic Equanimity

Competition and Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:27:00 +0000

There's a belief that competition drives innovation. Monopolies stagnate when they're allowed total control over entire industries. Invisible forces maintain control over competitors to ensure the right balance of efficiency and production.

Ergo, Microsoft needs Apple, Google needs Yahoo, Walmart needs Target, and Verizon needs AT&T. But having said all that... these companies are in competition with one another for dominance and control of their respective marketplace. They each individually want to control the market and set prices at whatever they want. As a result, you see them use every opportunity to get advantages over each other. From advertising to prices to cross-promotions with other favored industries... there's always some way to gain an advantage. And that's to the benefit of everybody.

However, another way to gain a competitive advantage is to "trim the fat". Oftentimes, this resolves to identifying the least productive areas of the business and figuring out how to integrate their functionality into other areas (this is called "synergy") or creating better methods of accomplishing the same things (called "innovation"). With synergy and innovation, companies are able to produce the same quality of goods and services for less cost and with less manpower. This is generally good, until you consider the last bit about "less manpower".

Industries keep around their labor force to maintain expert knowledge during the transition from the old systems to the more efficient new systems. As the expert knowledge is utilized to iron-out bugs with the new synergies and innovations, the expert knowledge becomes common knowledge. After that, less emphasis is put on maintaining the personnel who had the expert knowledge. In addition, other pressures are applied for the business to build profits. The natural response to that is... job cuts! So the people who aren't needed anymore because their roles have been replaced are let go.

Then you have unemployment... which is where the country is currently at. 6.5% of the current workforce is unemployed. That's how new industries are created. Either the emerging energy industry will find a place for those people or something new will come along. If not... something cataclysmic will happen. And that is... the government will step in and find work for the unemployed. At the end of the day, the final competitive balance that Google, Microsoft, Walmart, and AT&T have to face is Washington. If those companies lay off too many of their employees... Uncle Sam will pick up the slack. That's the PRIMARY FUNCTION of government... security for its population.

Ergo, if companies don't want to answer to a stronger central government, they need to stop laying off their workforce or else the government will step in and start "hiring" all these people in some capacity or another.

This is why it is particularly unnerving that The Federal Reserve has not stepped in to bailout General Motors. It's as if the government has a different plan for Detroit (maybe they want to implement the GTC!). Either way, there's a waiting game to see if GM can pull themselves out of the muck or if the government enact some radically new legislation that'll make large scale automotive manufacturing obsolete.

What is also particularly unnerving is the Exxon has sat on their hands through the entire Gas/Energy crisis. It's as if they don't care. How dare they have record profits while other industries suffer. Fuck them. With their billions in profits, they ought to rebuild Detroit and New Orleans! At the very least, they *ought* to make headlines with whatever their efforts have been to replace the fossil fuels that have been the lifeblood of their company for so long. Investment in solar technology? Investment in wind power? No, as far as we know the executives at Exxon are swimming in their profits like Scrooge McDuck used to swim in his vault. And as a result... by sitting on their profits I predict a rude awakening for Exxon during the upcoming administration.

And that's the invisible hand of the market. Corporations versus governments. And in the end... everybody wins.

The Director

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:37:00 +0000

My friend, Chris, does photography workshops for aspiring artists. I would link his webpage, but off the top of my head I don't know it. Anyway, during his workshops one of the topics which is apparently discussed is how to use an Adobe software product called Lightroom. Supposedly, this is "the best thing out there" for managing catalogs that include thousands of images. Having spent an afternoon clicking "Next, next, next" through a list of 1500 vacation photos from August, I easily believe that Lightroom provides a lot of added value for its users.

That said, according to Chris, there aren't many options for photographers who want to get the most out of Lightroom. Sure, they can sign-up for Chris' workshop and get the day long immersion, but that isn't economically sound for everybody. Another option is a series of videos that are available here. I watched about half an hour of these with Chris last week and they are *boring*. Plus, the full collection is like 8 hours long. Often, the presenters is these videos are rambling. Seldom, they are engaging. In sum, if you have 8 hours to spend learning Adobe Lightroom, you may as well just spend that time digging into the product and figuring it out on your own. There is simply no value in highlighting every button, menu, or toolbar in the product.

Thus, I met with Chris last week to brainstorm ideas on how to make a quick, engaging video that educates users on the different uses of Adobe Lightroom. I'm going to be the director and the cameraman. He's going to write, edit, and star in it. His photography workshop partner Aaron is going to co-star in it. We'll all be producers, I suppose. The plan is to start filming in Boston in the beginning of November and finish by the end December. I recall editing of my movie took months, but this should be a lot easier because their will be a much easier flow to piece together.

And I leave you with semi-meaningful statistics:

Current RBCDD Score: 27
Commissioned Artwork in October: 3
Ideas: GTC, LE, 2076, CPFP, CBLRP

My Travels

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:22:00 +0000

I found a link on ESR's page to a service that provides a convenient way to link an image that illustrates a person's travels and for posterity I have decided to post the map of places where I've been. Do note, my only journeys outside of our country's borders have been to St. Catherine Street, but I think this map helps show that I know how to get around.

A major trip which I will eventually take is to Alaska. For travel information to Alaska, I have found the online resource Romancing Alaska. It's very low-tech but it has great information and excellent recommendations.

Evolutionary Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:18:00 +0000

There are quite a few things that I would like to discuss in the future, so I will leave this as a springboard to remind myself about those. Right now there are quite a few things that are occupying my time and if I can find the time it is my goal to eventually elaborate. Unfortunately, without access to the internet at home it is problematic for me to find the time to keep up with this online tomfoolery. But on the plus side, do you know how many fewer hours I spend on Facebook per week? I estimate between 3 and 5.

The first point of discussion comes from the "Something Old" category. I joined the MIT Gym and have been running lately. It is good to workout several times a week, but I've limited myself to the treadmills, which means the return of the Running Beer Diet. Though, in the latest incarnation the torture is enhanced (version 2.0) so that it's now the Running Beer Coffee and Dessert Diet. If you want an explanation of how the diet work, ask me. I invented it.

The second point of discussion is the my APAS proposal has gained some legs inside of my organization and I've met with leaders from the Space Programs Division. In connection with this, today I ordered Human Spaceflight by Larson to gain more information on this topic.

The third point of discussion is that I am being artsy. I commissioned a local printer to produce a number of images from the trip to South Dakota and Wyoming that I took. They look marvelous. This coming Saturday, I am going to meet with a framer who will teach me what I need to know to make the overall presentation look really nice. When all is said and done, the goal is to decorate my apartment with fine art.

The fourth point is that it has occurred to me recently to setup a financial consulting services business to help middle class individuals who need to make big financial decisions. My theory is that recent economic indicators highlight the fact that America, as a culture, is not geared towards making responsible economic decisions.

The final point of today's post is that editing on my novel is going really slowly and I wish I had more time for it.

S. 3325, Intellectual Property, and Art

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:16:00 +0000

The Senate is talking about Intellectual Property laws...

It seems a subcommittee have approved S. 3325 called the "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008". The full Senate, House, and President would still have to approve the bill for it to become law, so you still have time to notify your Representatives to attempt to kill this thing. In my opinion, our government will pass it and deal a blow to copyright violators.

The strongest worded argument against this bill (and the best explanation of it) is here.

A dry, but interesting take in favor of this bill is here.

[In my discussion, I refer to it as "art" instead of "Intellectual Property". Science is intellect. Real estate is property. Art is intellectual property. These subtleties should not be confused.]

My take: I could care less about this in terms of how it directly affects me. I don't infringe on the copyrights of others as a matter of principle, and I don't support artists who would be so callous as to assert that I don't have a right to copy their stuff if I please. In that respect, I oppose any laws which supposedly protect these artists (or rather, the companies who represent them). Specifically, I oppose laws that place a value on digital content in the first place. The only copyright that I do support is that somebody should not be able to profit from another person's artwork (charging people to watch the Super Bowl at your house or selling pirate DVDs, for instance). As a matter of course, though, if digital artifacts weren't copyrighted in the first place, these business models would crumble.

But if you'll allow me to go off on a tangentially related rant.... it's my belief to strive for an economy where artists do it for the love of creation, the desire for fame/notoriety, and not the greed of monetary gain. In that spirit, I am going to suggest a financial encumberance that will downplay greed and cut "Big Business" out from the position of funding the creation of most types of art (arguably, BB would still maintain control over mediums of art that require large-scale co-ordination and efforts to orchestrate (such as big budget movies and video games)).

My proposal would be to offer tax incentives (via a "deduction" applied to decrease the "gross income" of creators during the year so that their overall tax burden is lessened). This would have the effect (in my opinion) of enticing businessmen and laborers to create and support art in their free time. Meanwhile, "starving artists" would benefit from this by earning the right to claim a high "artistic deduction" which would position them to be supported by minimium wage occupations. This would work so that an individual who has significant artistic talent could work at McDonald's to earn $25k and create art that qualifies him for a $50k tax deduction. As such, his "taxes" would be calculated based on $0 income. The additional $25k (because his previous gross was in the poverty range) would be refunded based on some TBD percentage. Meanwhile, a person who works as a bank manager might make $75k per year and dabble in performing arts during the holiday season. Let's say for the sake of argument that these performances (made to the public) would qualify him for a $10k tax deduction so that his annual tax burden is decreased to $65k. This presents a good incentive for him to continue to do this year to year.

Now the trouble becomes determining how to calculate how much the "tax deduction" should be, and that comes down to picking values. For example, if you did a painting that was accepted to be displayed in a public place you'd get a $2,000 tax deduction. You took photographs of a natural phenomenon and published them on the internet in a noteworthy archive? A $500 tax deduction. You metaphrasted Shakespeare's Sonnets? A $1,000 tax deduction. You donated $40 to charity at a public concert? Write it off as a tax deduction. Additionally, some types of art require multiple years to create (books, animations, statues), so there would be additional consideration to let people claim a certain amount of time and evaluate that using a predetermined rate (say, $10/hr).

Again, this is letting people work on their own projects in their free time in a manner that will allow them to lower their tax burden for the express purpose of producing a work of art that will be free of copyright to be enjoyed by the general public.

Now, politicians would argue that all these "tax deductions" would be lowering the government's income. Meanwhile, others would clamor that the corruption of big businesses would see the lucrative value of the deductions and take advantage of them for greedy purposes. But these arguments wouldn't understand the goals of the proposal in the first place. The whole point of the exercise is to expand the culture of creation. There are gains when Joe Smith has an incentive to get together with his buddies to put together a musical arrangement and publish it on the internet. Maybe, they can even find somebody with filming and editing experience who could cut a video for them. Perhaps (and this is the fear of the music industry), the Joe Smith Band has a fresh flavor that catches the ears of suburbanites and gives them a new tune to bop their heads to. To that end, the Joe Smith Band would receive their tax deduction for creating a song (maybe $1,000) and receive some bonus deduction for a production that influences the popular culture (maybe $25,000). This will trim the taxes that Uncle Sam can take from them during the year when they released their song and in the year where it gained notoriety. This provides them with a strong incentive to channel their energy into creative work. And by releasing their creation to the public without copyright, the Joe Smith Band doesn't have to worry about their work being "intellectually protected". And thus, the bill that has been approved by the Senate subcommittee misses the mark in terms of protecting artists who strive to create art. Instead, I would urge the subcommittee to focus on urging artists to create NEW art instead of making inane rule to "protect" them from revenues generated from their OLD art.

That is all. Thanks for listening.

Camping, Cooking, and Communication

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:40:00 +0000

I've got the "Three C's" on my mind.

I recently got back from a camping trip. This was good fun, but now I've got a living room full of camping equipment that I'll probably never use more than 3 or 4 times a year. Furthermore, since I borrowed some of the most fundamental camping stuff (a tent, camping stove, and mattress pad), I don't even have a full set of supplies to go on my own impromptu trips with. My suggestion is that it would be nice if there was some kind of "Need/Want" system where people could request/offer what they've got to achieve maximum utilization.

I love cooking. Really, it gives me personal joy to be able to create delicious food. But the thing is... its time consuming and clean-up is a bitch. Any meal where I am doing something experimental requires at least some forethought and planning to figure out (a) what ingredients I already have, and (b) what ingredients I need to go to the store and buy. And for some reason, going to the store with a specific list always throws me off my game and seems like extra work. The average cooking pot or pan sits in my sink piled up with dishes and glassware for 3 or 4 nights before I get enough time and motivation to attend to it. Anyway, the point is I wish that I could join a group with 7 or 8 others who share a passion for cooking, but don't have the time. Each person would do one meal per month so that you generally get 2 meals per week. This way, you get the joy of eating lots of great meals and the pleasure of spending less time actually cooking.

And communication... I want cable, phone, messaging, music, and internet in one package for an affordable monthly price. Is this possible? If the country could get its act together and not let the service providers bully their customers, I think they could run profitably while delivering all these services for a mere $40 per month. Then again, there are a lot of "sit on their hands" staff workers who are employed by Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Sirius XM, Clearchannel, TimeWarner, Cablevision, and DirectTV who need to collect their weekly paychecks so they can feed their families. It's a shame that there are so many free-loaders in this entertainment cartel to prevent prices from dropping below the $120 per month that people are accustomed to paying for these services. Can't they trim their fat so that they can afford to trim their prices for the benefit of all consumers?

Film/Theatre Pitch: Life's Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:10:00 +0000

During the weeks leading up to my recent trip to the Badlands, Yellowstone, and the Black Hills I was struck with some inspiration and suffered some perspiration in a failed attempt to become a writer/director/producer/actor/editor. It turns out, these are too many roles for a single person to have.

The concept is simple. In the spirit of (a) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, (b) Vladimir & Estragon, (c) Holden McNeil & Banky Edwards, or (d) Randal Graves & Dante Hicks, I wanted to put together a production which features the idiotic banter of two actors during the course of a short period of time. The central theme of the plot was to be a fairly universal one: life. Precisely, I wanted to espouse about several of the most important choices made by a person through their formative years (i.e. occupations, relations, and passions). These are the choices that mold us... these are the choices that make us who we are... these are the choices which reinforce the old axiom, "You can be anything you want when you grow up".

The script calls for 5 diverse settings. This was to take advantage of the different places I visited on my vacation. The original plan was to film with Meghan and Tom at these locations during the trip, but like I said, that plan was a failure because I didn't feel comfortable going ahead with it (more on that later). Anyway, the first setting was desert. The second setting was the geyser plains and canyons of Yellowstone. The third setting was a beach. The fourth setting was a forest. The final setting was an urban park (such as Central Park in NYC).

The plot follows that the two protagonists awaken each day in a different, random location. They don't know they got there. They just get to enjoy each day for what it is. They explore, debate, and argue about their lives and their own individual experiences. They talk a lot about their past, present, and future. They frustrate with each other and luxuriate in their own uniqueness. But at the heart of it... they are shown to take a step back and reflect positively on everything (even the bad stuff).

To move the plot forward, I had imbued the protagonists with a "magic backpack" out of which they could draw any article of need or want that they can imagine. In this sense, they are put in a position where they can truly enjoy themselves and be comfortable. Also, a magic backpack provides some opportunities for comedy. And at the heart of it... that's what I was going for. A funny story that talks about serious topics in a very nonsensical way. I wanted to present something that will make an audience laugh, but also contemplate their own choices. You know what I mean? Something with layers.

And that's where I failed, because while I was able to put together a plot and (most of) a script that I felt comfortable with... I don't think I did a good job with the humor. When it came time to commence filming during Day 2 of the vacation, spurred by misgivings that Meghan and Tom expressed doubts in their acting abilities, I decided that a great idea would be thoroughly mediocre if not properly executed. And a comedy, without humor is certainly a poor execution.

At that time, I resolved to give myself more time to further development of the script so I can polish it and improve it. Also, I resolved to solicit help from others, because I realize that I am not capable of pulling off the feature length production by myself.

That's what this post is for... who wants to help? Presently I am in the "refining the script and planning" phase of the project. Casting, filming, and editing are to follow. I can't promise anything, but I can say that my ultimate goal is to enter the final production into a number of different film festivals and maybe win a couple of them. Then, after the film is produced I envision granting rights to various theater groups for a live production using the script from the film. After all, live action is better than film anyway. Film is just easier because you get to fix and cover-up mistakes as you go. :)

So, there it is. Who's in?

Mars Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:37:00 +0000

I have been invited by the Mars Society to present the project discussed in this post at their conference in Boulder, CO on August 15, 2008. There are 10 "Finalists" who will be presenting, and afterwards the Board of Directors is going to select one project for further development by the Mars Society over the course of the next 5-6 years. I am excited and terrified.

Meanwhile, I have begun to discuss this project with my boss at work. He talked about the possibility for me to get credit for "working" while I am at the conference. Also, he suggested that they might be able to pay for my trip out there. Finally, he conferred with *his* boss and they agreed that I should pursue the idea of submitted a proposal for internal research and development funding.

Like I've said in the past, I don't know what to expect, but idealistically I think it would be great if this helped to lead me down the path to a Ph.D from MIT.

Government Free Software

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:19:00 +0000

There is a poll on the website for the Governor of the State of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick called Massachusetts Should Use Free Software Exclusively.

You should click on the link to let Deval know that you support this issue (unfortunately, it forces you to give your name, phone, and address to "register a username" but that didn't take more than a minute for me). Naturally, I support the idea for the government to only run Free Software. I sent the following (slightly hyperbolic) note along with my vote in support of the issue.

I support the use of Free Software in the government for a number of reasons. Primarily, if MA uses free software then tax dollars can be spent on more productive things than software licenses. Secondarily, I believe that MA should try to act as a model for other states in the Union. If small, but technological savvy MA can't switch to Free software, then other states shouldn't even bother. Once MA can succeed the Free Software switch, other states will follow suite.

As free software spreads to other governments, American companies will begin to understand that Free Software is better. After that, Free Software will eventually trickle down to the Universities. With a nation of students educated on the principles of sharing and cooperation, America will regain our position as the more prosperous country on the planet. This prosperity will benefit our children and grandchildren enormously.

So, you see, MA must switch to Free Software to ensure the prosperity of future generations of Americans.

God Bless,
Robert Van Dyk

Yankee fans in Boston

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:12:00 +0000

There was a picture of me in the June 29, 2008 Sunday Boston Globe. The article talks about the Yankees MeetUp group that I do with Alissa.

Is anybody surprised that I blinked in the picture? I'm not. I'm also not too surprised that the actual article was totally lame. It's a step up from copying and pasting stories from the Associated Press and not bothering to fix the spelling mistakes, though.

As a bonus feature to this short post today, I got a couple shirts from Treadless.com last night.

That is all.

General Transportation Corporation

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:39:00 +0000

I introduced the idea of a General Transportation Corporation in the post entitled Lots to cover. The general idea is to make it easy for citizens living within 30 miles of major metropolitan areas to live without owning cars.

I know what you are thinking, "It is impossible to get around in the suburbs without cars!" Your thoughts are correct, but misguided. Your knee-jerk reaction was to assume that people who don't have ownership of a car also don't have access to them. This belief is wrong, and is proved to be false by the business success of organizations such as ZipCar.

However, ZipCar is destined to be a venture that is constrained to a niche market, unless they can solve a logistics problem that will make their vehicles usable for more than just trips to ballet practice and the supermarket. You see, ZipCar faces the MAJOR flaw of requiring that each vehicle be returned to ITS HOME when you are done with it. This business model is a very primitive solution to the logistics nightmare that would result if ZipCar attempted to let its customers pick up the cars from one location and drop them off at a second location. By not serving the "drop off at a second location" group, ZipCar prevents automobile commuters from taking their business.

Ergo: ZipCar proves that it is possible to free some people from the burden of car ownership, but it is not a general solution to that problem.

But is there a general solution to the problem? The good news is, economically speaking, there is! Thanks to the god-awful prices that automobile manufactures, insurance companies, and gas stations charge every member of society who wishes to own a car... there is LOTS AND LOTS of room in the average person's budget when the cost of owning a car is eliminated. A *cautious* estimate is that during the lifetime of an average car, it will cost its owners $400/month.

Thus, a company (General Transportation Corporation) can succeed if it can offer citizens a CONVENIENT way of getting around for less than $400/month (which shouldn't be too hard). If you had read the previous discussion on GTC, you would have realized that it was just a really well planned taxi service which drops customers off at buses and trains that will take them close enough to their destinations for another GTC taxi to take them the rest of the way. If you had read between the lines even more, you would have seen that the logistics of GTC would work out so that 20-30 cars would be driving their "routes" around small neighborhoods where they operate so that they would effectively be a localized bus organization that is small enough to provide door-to-door service.

Let's try some case study. For the sake of argument, the focus of this study will be centered in the Boston metropolitan area because it is the only area of the country where I am familiar with the Mass Transit System.

First case study: ME!

I am in a very bizarre group of citizens who own a car, but do not use it to commute to work. In fact, on average I only use my car to make 2 trips per week (so it is quite apparent to me that owning a car is a waste of money).

I drive to (a) Matt's place in Waltham, (b) Yero's place across town, (c) shopping destinations, (d) New Jersey, (e) Cape Cod, (f) Shannon (formerly to her college in Easton MA, currently to her residence in Wilmington MA), (g) the South Boston beach, and (h) Rich's place across town. These 8 destinations describe ALL of the places I have gone in the last 6 months from within my car.

Let's examine these destinations to figure out what I would need from GTC to satisfy my transportation destination requirements:

(a) is located within walking distance from the Waltham commuter line, and I occasionally need to bring a luggage sized package with me to this destination.

(b) is within walking/biking distance, and I only drive when I am lazy or when I need to bring something there that cannot simply be stashed in a backpack.

(c) shopping destinations include a couple random locations in Boston (including Harpoon Brewery, the Cambridgeside Galleria, and Andrew Square Shopping Center) that are located close to the Red/Green Lines (easy to serve by GTC). also includes the Natick Mall which I have no idea how GTC would serve.

(d) a GTC car could pick me up with a luggage sized bag and drop me off at Central Square so I could take the Red Line to South Station and then take a Bus/Train to NYC, Hoboken, Ridgewood, and then be met by a GTC car to take me the final mile from the Ridgewood Train Station to my mom's house in Midland Park.

(e) a trip to Cape Cod where I could have packed a backpack and taken the Red Line to South Station and then a Bus to Hyannis where I would have needed to be met by a GTC car. while on the Cape we would have needed GTC to take us to the beach on Saturday afternoon and to the Drive-In Movie Double Feature on Saturday night. Would GTC be accepting of letting you monopolize their cars for as many as 4 hours to see two movies in the Drive-In? That's a tough one.

(f) Shannon's college was located near the Red Line. Her residence in Wilmington is located near the Lowell commuter rail.

(g) this was an impromptu trip when the weather was uber-nice, and if we had taken it without a car we would have taken the Red Line to Andrew Square and a GTC car to where we sat on the beach.

(h) I only take my car to Rich's to be lazy, and an equally valid transportation method is walking to Central Square and then taking the Red Line to Davis Square and walking to his place.

After thinking through all those logistics, I conclude that I would happily pay GTC $200/month for (a) irregular rides when I need them, and (b) the convenience of working with the MBTA to determine the optimal travel schedule so I never spend more than 10 minutes waiting for a connecting bus or train. This would save me about $200/month because my current automobile expenditures are about $400/month.

So, now that I've done a case study on myself, I invite other's to do a case study on themselves. It shouldn't be too hard.

Additionally, I am going to grab a notebook and create a "Car Journal" to describe trips that I use my car for so that I might get a clearer idea of the value of my transportation needs. I think I will find out that ALL of my public transportation costs + traditional taxi service would be cheaper than owning my car. Only time will tell.

Love Poems

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:30:00 +0000

An internet cartoon recently suggested using "scented candle fragrances" for inspiration. Here's a list of all of the fragrances produced by Yankee Candle. Are there any romantic phrases here?

Amber Glow
Autumn Gold
Autumn Leaves
Autumn Woods
Autumn Wreath
Baby Powder
Balsam Cedar
Beach Walk
Berry Jam
Berry Tangerine
Black Cherry
Black Raspberry
Blueberry
Blueberry Scone
Buttercream
Cafe Au Lait
Candied Apple
Cherry Lemonade
Chocolate Cupcake
Christmas Cookie
Christmas Eve
Christmas Wreath
Cider Donut
Cinnamon & Sugar
Cinnamon Stick
Clean Cotton
Coconut Bay
Cottage Breeze
Country Linen
Creme Brulee
Cranberry Chutney
Dune Grass
Egyptian Cotton
Evening Air
Fall Festival
Farmhouse Apple
French Vanilla
Fresh Cut Herbs
Fresh Cut Roses
Frosted Cedar Wreath
Frosted Pumpkin
Fruit Smoothie
Fudge Ripple
Garden Fresh
Gingerbread
Good Morning
Granny Smith
Green Bamboo
Greenhouse
Harvest
Holiday Bayberry
Holiday Home Sweet Home
Hollyberry
Home Sweet Home
Home for the Holidays
Honeydew Melon
Island Spa
Jack Frost
Juicy Orange
Juicy Peach
Juicy Watermelon
Lavender
Lemon Lavender
Lilac Blossoms
MacIntosh
MacIntosh & Peach
Mandarin Cranberry
Mango Peach Salsa
Meadow Blossoms
MidSummer's Night
Midnight Cove
Midnight Jasmine
Milk & Cookies
Mistletoe
Mulling Spices
Ocean Water
Orchard Pear
Peach & Sweet Berries
Pomegranate Cider
Pumpkin Pie
Red Apple Wreath
Root Beer Float
Sage & Citrus
Sheer Gardenia
Siberian Silver Fir
Sicilian Orange
Sparkling Angel
Sparkling Cinnamon
Sparkling Lemon
Sparkling Pine
Sparkling Vanilla
Spiced Pumpkin
Spring Bouquet
Star Fruit & Orange
Stargazer Lily
Sun & Sand
Sunflower
Sweet Honeysuckle
Sweet Strawberry
Sweet Violet
Vanilla Caramel
Vanilla Cupcake
Vanilla Lime
Velvet Petals
Vineyard
Water Garden
Wedding Day
Willow Breeze

Affordable Housing

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:08:00 +0000

I recently addressed some remarks to the government of the City of Cambridge with hopes of making the world a better place. Today, I got a response from the Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the Cambridge Housing Authority saying, "Thank you for your thoughtful email."

Here is what I had originally written:

Representatives of the Cambridge Housing Authority,

First off, I would like to say that I think what you are doing for the community of Cambridge is a wonderful thing and I commend your efforts to make Cambridge an affordable city. I don't know if this message will fall into an e-mail void, but I very much wish for it to be considered by members of the board for future planning.

The basis for my idea is founded in a belief which is rooted in my personal experiences. Essentially, I argue that affordable housing benefits should be opened to individuals and families that are encumbered with high monthly payments for student loans. In this manner, the CHA would be encouraging higher education, which would lead to the benefits of a highly educated workforce (job creation, industrial innovation, and strong social ideology). With smart graduates in the area, it will be easier to find better teachers for the next generation and the trend will have an exponential effect.

It should be noted that recent graduates encumbered with high student loans have comparable economic statuses with low-income families. For example, an individual earning $60k/year and paying back $40k in loans (a figure that is only twice as much as I have seen reported to be national average) needs to pay back approximately $1k per month to have any hopes of repaying his or her loans within a reasonable 5-10 year period. This person does not receive any significant tax benefit to ease this burden, so their net income is effectively reduced by $12k + the taxes on $12k (which is between $3k and $4k). Thus, somebody making $60k with high student debt is effectively comparable to an individual who earns $45k/year (a figure that would qualify for low-income housing based on this chart => http://www.cambridge-housing.org/chaweb.nsf).

However, on a rudimentary level, tailoring housing for recent graduates is fundamentally different than for low-income families. Recent graduates are likely to desire the ability to live in an intellectually stimulating environment with their peers rather than the projects that are currently available for low-income families. Thus, it is my idea and proposal to establish a special type of housing alternatives for these individuals.

Furthermore, I would propose making these "academic projects" grand in size and scope to ensure that a revolving door of graduates can be offered luxurious accommodations at reasonable rents during the first five years after their graduation. My detailed plan is to develop large high-rise buildings in desirable locations with enough space for 300 units each (~30 stories with 10 units each). The attachment highlights areas that I think would be ideal for these types of projects with green (the yellow highlights sites that I believe are currently being developed as a 10 and a 24 unit building). The triangular plot near Kendal Square is an old (and seemingly abandoned, whenever I walk past it) Polaroid building that I believe MIT currently owns. The second plot has approximately 12 buildings that could conceivably be purchased under eminent domain for a value of approximately $10 Million. Of course, the benefits of building there (over-looking the Charles River) could entice a developer because of the astounding value of a views from a high-rise at that location. Both of these locations measure approximately 2 acres in space and would represent wonderful opportunities for retail shops and services on the first and second floors. Additionally, burying 2 or 3 levels of parking space at these sites (or burying one level, and using stories 3 and 4 as a car-elevator parking garage for people who don't need to take their cars out everyday) would be a boon. Also, there is a well-documented environmental benefit that has been associated with energy savings in high-rise buildings, so there will be a lot of good press for the "Greenness" of these projects.

I hope that you would propose a vote to consider what would be necessary to provide this type of alternative housing option to student loan encumbered citizens. I think a long term plan to build the first building by 2014 and the second by 2017 would add a significant value to Cambridge and help to ensure that our city remains one of the best places in the state (and country) to live.

Thank you for your time,
* signed *

Attached:

MPC - APAS

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:30:00 +0000

As you should have figured out if you read this regularly, I am interested in space (in general) and Mars (in specific). I recently submitted a project proposal to the Mars Society for the Mars Project Challenge to meet their May 25, 2008 deadline date. My idea/project is called the Autonomous Planetary Agricultural System. I have prepared an Executive Summary (4 page pdf) and a Mars Society format Quad Chart (1 page pdf). I borrowed the following image from a public domain site (nasa.gov), and if you are interested in more like it you should check out their image gallery

Note that the Quad Chart had to get "compressed" a bit so I could store it on Metaphrast.com because of a 500 Kb filesize limitation that our host forces on us (ahh... the cost of free).

Lots to Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:31:00 +0000

In this issue of Hedonistic Equanimity, I will talk about (I) MPC, (II) Investments, (III) Dinner Sharing, (IV) my solution for General Transportation, (V) LibroVox, (VI) Vacation 2008, and (VII) A Little Bit about My Thoughts on the Meaning of Life. Sit back, relax, and don't forget to tip your waitress.

I. MPC

This is a competition that is being run by an organization called the Mars Society who is interested in the goal of human exploration and colonization of Mars. MPC stands for Mars Project Challenge, and represents a call for proposals for projects that should stimulate a community of development effort with the promise of funding in the order of magnitude of $10 Million.

After some consideration, I have decided that I am interested enough to author a project proposal for the MPC. The goal of my project will be In-situ Resource Cultivation through the use of Automated Facilities that leverage the expertise of many industries of specialists to enable the long-term Survivability of human life on a Celestial Outpost.

I will post follow-up information and links to my proposal submission after the due date for the MPC (which is May 25, 2008) elapses.

II. Investments

Following up from my analysis of the stock market from a few weeks ago, I have settled on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) as the first solar company which I want to invest $10k into. I presently hold a stake of approximately $2k which I will increase over time as the market allows. Considerable negativity exists for ESLR because they are two years behind the curve established by companies with larger stakes in the solar power game including industry giant First Solar. My hope with the selection of ESLR is to capture a stake in a company that is at the point in its development where First Solar was approximately two years ago.

III. Dinner Sharing

This past Tuesday, I invited six (6) guests to join me for dinner at my apartment. I received significant help from one of them. After about two hours of cooking, we served a (1) Caesar salad with homemade dressing and freshly baked croûtons, (2) Ground Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads (modified recipe), and (3) homemade Sausage Risotto. All told, it was an enjoyable experience for the two cooks and for the diners.

More than that, I would consider that it was incredibly cost efficient and more healthy to eat a home cooked meal rather than going out to eat. I wish for more of these types of culinary events, especially considering the fact that I would rather shell out the full cost for 7 people (about $65, including beverages) than pay for my own meal at a restaurant (about $25). Right? Does that make a lick of sense?

IV. my solution to General Transportation

This comes from a Thread post that I made in the past week or two, so I will quote it.

Really... there is a market worth $2k to 8k per year per person for affordable and convenient transportation... but the barrier of entry is to be a more convenient alternative than cars.

A business that can draw $1k per year from their customers is a corporate wet dream.... so if you could implement a cost effective way of profitably charging people $100-400 a month for the service of "all-purpose transportation" I think you'd have a viable business model.

How about this... a car service that operates locally to pickup/drop-off people at bus and train stations, call it General Transportation Corporation. The business partners with the state to pay for its customers usage of those services so that everything is broken down in a flat, easy monthly bill. Then, once the customer arrives at close to their destination another GTC car picks them up and brings them to where they need to go. GTC can offer a blanket policy to "guarantee pickup within 20 minutes of a call to make an appointment" or "guarantee pickup within 5 minutes of a pre-scheduled time". The drivers will speak the native language of the majority of the district in which they operate. The only constraint of GTC is that the drivers are limited within geographical areas dictated by the convenience of public transportation options. The bonus, on the other hand, is that no matter where you need to go, you'll be able to call up the GTC customer support staff or search on the GTC website for the quickest route. In many cases, being able to get that drop-off at the train station will completely eliminate traffic on your commute so that you'll travel time will actually DECREASE from what it is when you take your car. The other bonus is actually a social benefit wherein drunk driving is decreased because you never have to deal with the problem of (a) take a taxi and leave my car at the bar, or (b) risk it.

If I were to call a taxi to take me from (imagining I live with my mom in NJ) Midland Park to the Ridgewood train station where (imagining I work in Manhattan) I take the train to the PATH and the PATH to 33rd Street and then a taxi at 33rd Street to get where I need to go... it would cost $5 for taxi, $6 for train, $2 for PATH, and $5 for taxi.... times that by twice a day. That is $36 for a day of transportation. At that cost, $20 gas sounds reasonable. But my argument is that GTC can be run WITH COORDINATED LOGISTICAL PLANNING for much less than that.

I took a shuttle from Wayne, NJ to the airport in Newark one time and it was a $70 bill. The return trip to get back to Wayne cost just as much. Face it, shuttle services are for wealthy people who don't need the benefit of a full time driver.

Find a shuttle service that offers a door-to-door COMPLETE transportation solution for less then $800 a month and I'll tip my hat to you.

Do the calculations that I neglected which schedule the logistics of manning local fleets of GTC cars throughout the tri-state area and I will thank you immensely for saving me the trouble. But it most certainly would not be a 1-to-1 driver to client relationship. That would be absurd. It would be a minimum of 1-to-17 such that a driver would service the equivalent of $4500 of revenue each month which would cover (a) cost of automobile [500], (b) cost of insurance [200], (c) cost of gas [600], (d) cost of public transport subsidies [1,500], (d) driver [2,000], (e) overhead [300].

During "rush hour" you'd need to have fully deployed fleets, but overnight and during the afternoon hours things would be much more relaxed and you could get away with letting most of your staff off between 10am and 3pm. So realistically, a single driver would loop around and maybe pickup 2 clients every 15 minutes from 6am to 10am which makes them able to handle ~30 clients which is more than enough to ensure GTC profitability.

Thus, if "peak" is 7am and 20 people are scheduled for a pickup, you'd need to staff 10 drivers at that time. And by virtue of my calculations, you'd need to make sure you've got at least 130 clients (for a total of 150 minimum) in that locality who have scheduled pickup times that are not during 7am. Thus, that locality would generate $45k in revenue per month.

The state would love you for injecting $15k into the transit system each month (thus, they can afford to hire more bus routes). The gas station that you patronize would love you for spending $6k a month at their pump. The car dealership that you patronize would love you for sending them $5k a month to lease their 10 cars. The insurance company would love you for hiring 10 safe drivers with low risk and $2k of gravy each month. Am I missing anybody? The jobs created by hiring 10 drivers and 2 customer support reps for the area? They would probably be pretty happy, too.

V. LibriVox

This list is in no particular order with no attempt to provide any relavant information. This is more of a "TODO" for me so that I eventually post a formatted list with more useful content so that the contents of this list can be made to look like the lists in a previous related post that I have made.

http://librivox.org/discourse-on-the-method-by-rene-descartes/
http://librivox.org/the-sayings-of-confucius-by-confucius/
http://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/
http://librivox.org/relativity-by-albert-einstein/
http://librivox.org/the-waste-land-by-t-s-eliot/
http://librivox.org/the-iliad-by-homer-translated-by-samuel-butler/
http://librivox.org/the-odyssey-by-homer/
http://librivox.org/call-of-the-wild-by-jack-london/
http://librivox.org/the-gettysburg-address-by-abraham-lincoln/
http://librivox.org/the-communist-manifesto-by-karl-marx-and-friendrich-engels/
http://librivox.org/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/
http://librivox.org/the-antichrist-by-nietzsche/
http://librivox.org/ruth-of-boston-by-james-otis/
http://librivox.org/the-art-of-war-by-sun-tzu/
http://librivox.org/declaration-of-independence-by-the-united-states-of-america/
http://librivox.org/beowulf/
http://librivox.org/worldwide-effects-of-nuclear-war-some-perspectives-by-united-states-arms-control-and-disarmament-agency/

VI. Vacation 2008

I have set the dates and location for the vacation that I will be taking this year. I will be flying with my sister and her boyfriend to South Dakota from Aug 9-17 for a week of camping and adventures in wildly diverse landscapes. I think I have a favorable itinerary because we'll get most of the day on Saturday Aug 9 to get settled (in the Badlands) and we'll have a respectable schedule on Sunday Aug 17 to get (from Custer State Park) to the airport.

Here is a tentative schedule of events:

* Spend 2 nights in the Badlands
o hike 5-10 miles on the 9th
o whatever is enjoyable on the 10th
o then return *early* and drive to Yellowstone
* Spend 3 nights in Yellowstone
o geysers on the 11th
o hiking backcountry on the 12th
o big game hunting on the 13th
o then return to Custer Park
* Spend 3 nights in Custer
o relax at camp on 14th
o caving and seeing the scenery on 15th
o Washington Monument and whatever else on the 16th
o then flying home

VII. A Little Bit about My Thoughts on the Meaning of Life

I think that the meaning of life is to enjoy worthwhile experiences. I believe that positive experiences are meant to provide enjoyment. I believe negative experiences are intended to serve as lessons to help us identify the choices required to guarantee the positive experiences that we prefer to live through.

I think that anybody who would wish to do harm or take advantage of somebody else's good fortune does not understand these simple, basic truths and that is where injustice comes from. In order to create a just world where worthwhile experiences can be embraced, I think we should reclassify the criminal justice system to classify greed and corruption that results in unsubstantiated 7-figure personal gains as a punishable offense.

In other words, throw Charles Prince in jail for several years after the injustices he committed as the CEO of Citibank that resulted in $26 Million in personal gains for him and billions of dollars of loses for others.

Along these lines, I propose to produce a movie which deals with the give-and-take of civilized life and the importance of worthwhile experiences. I would aim to shoot this film while I am on vacation in August. This would be the second feature length vacation movie that I have written, directed, produced, filmed, edited, and distributed in my short career as a moviemaker.

Solar Orbits

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:38:00 +0000

As a semi-follow up from this earlier post, I wish to talk about how scheduling a trip the the glorious Red Planet would work. As you know, Earth and Mars take different amounts of time to orbit the Sun. The basics are discussed in great detail on the Mars Timekeeping Wikipedia page, so I will try to avoid repeating what is there.

But, basically the thing to know is that Mars ranges from between 50 million to 400 million miles from Earth, depending mainly on if they are on the same side of the Sun. Every twenty-five months, the planets align on the same side of the Sun in such a way that is optimal for minimizing travel distance from here to there. I could bore you with an explanation, but the best way to understand this cycle is to view a handy animation that has been created from credible sources. From that page:

Each time Earth passes close to Mars the event is called an "opposition". [...] Because an opposition can happen when Mars is at different points in its orbit, the distance at opposition changes, and so does the size of Mars as viewed from Earth. During the opposition in August 2003, Earth and Mars were closer together than they had been in thousands of years!

So, using the liberties granted to me by the powers of Fair Use, I have taken the liberty of preparing a series of images which show the sequence of oppositions from 1960 to 2027. You can view and download that page here (to be created). A more handy list is as follows:

01-02-1961, 02-13-1963, 03-21-1965, 04-30-1967, 06-16-1969, 08-17-1971, 10-23-1973, 12-16-1975

01-25-1978, 02-03-1980, 04-08-1982, 05-19-1984, 07-17-1986, 09-27-1988, 11-23-1990

01-06-1993, 02-15-1995, 03-26-1997, 05-05-1999, 06-21-2001, 08-24-2003, 10-30-2005, 12-21-2007

01-30-2010, 03-05-2012, 04-13-2014, 05-26-2016, 07-23-2018, 10-06,2020, 12-01-2022

01-09-2025, 02-13-2027

Along the same line of thinking, I was curious as to if there is any logical perennial relationship between Earth and Mars, and I put together a series of images taken on January 1 of each year between 1961 and 2025. That data, it turns out, is not nearly as interesting, but I will publish it here in case you are interested. Sometimes, being able to visualize the mathematical data can be greatly helpful for a person.

Multiplayer Awareness

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:43:00 +0000

This post is to encapsulate my player information for Multiplayer games that I occasionally enjoy. Feel free to contact me through these games for some awesome Online Gaming fun.

(Wii)

Guitar Hero III - Player Profile
Super Smash Bros Brawl Friend Code: 1633-4076-2747
Mario Kart Wii Friend Code; 3222-6091-8057

I will add to this list periodically and create a permanent link on the side of the page so that you'll always have an easy way to see updates when I add new games.

Dogma

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:15:00 +0000

I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant.
-Rufus (Chris Rock) from Dogma

He knows changes aren't permanent,
But change is.
-Tom Sawyer, by Rush

One thing history teaches us is that it has all been done before. It is comfortable to delude ourselves that each experience is unique, but that isn't the case. The only things that change from one event to the next are the setting and the names.

This is what makes stories so valuable. Stories capture the timelessness of the events that happen over and over again. Thus, stories don't only provide a looking-glass into the past, but also into the future.

In the play of life, the stage has been set and the actors are taking their places upon it. The trick, therefore, is to understand the stories and anticipate their actions to profit by it. It is seldom that I would actually advocate this type of selfishness for personal gain. I like to believe that I am altruistic, but there are certainly times where I play my cards close to my chest for my own personal gains.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
---Mark 8:36

A wise question! With a simple answer: It profits a man the world! It profits him the opportunity to be one of the actors in the play of life who perform the ever repeating scenes for their audience. And it profits the man the opportunity to change the script for the benefit of providing a 'new' story for the audience, and regain his soul.

Thus: Selfishness is benevolent. And here is the setting of the story and the actors in it. There are two worldwide economic crises at hand: energy and longevity. The energy crisis is easy to understand because the fossil fuels that we extract for most of the world's energy are destined to run out in a number of decades. Backstage, global warming and environmentalists clamor that burning pollutive fuels is killing the planet. And in recent years the amount of governmental aid for alternative energy sources and awareness of the need to have options has increased.

We are, or course, talking about mass-produced energy that drives entire populations and not the localized energy of small, self-sufficient communities. The story has been told numerous times before. For more than century we have toyed with alternative energy sources with varying levels of success. Up until the Civil War, we exploited human energy as a vicious way to get much work done. Deforestation yielded a source of wood fuel that could be burned. Mining has yielded a source of coal that can be burned. Hydroelectric power generated by river dams is a powerful solution that dates back to the New Deal. Nuclear power got its legs during the Cold War (and I am proud to say, powers 50% of the energy utilization in the state where I grew up). Now, there are three relative newcomers to the energy game. Ethanol from corn, energy captured by spinning turbines with the force of the wind, and energy captured from the rays of the sun compete for dominance in the new world of energy.

One of these new energy sources are destined to replace fossil fuels in a number of decades, but they are all generating revenues for publicly traded companies now and that can be profitted from. But... how?

I will write off the corn/ethanol business because it is dominated by firms like Kellogg, General Mills, ConAgra, Kraft, Nestle, and Heinz. These are all $10-50 Billion companies that are already limited by their own size and diversification to be able to provide any serious investment returns.

There are foreign companies that are working on wind power turbines in countries like Sweden and Germany, but the 800 pound gorilla is named General Electric. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions they will eventually control the market, but the key is that they are a $375 Billion dollar company and real growth potential is lacking.

But solar power has glorious potential. Take a look at the players here who will one day earn market capitalization of $500 Billion dollars. At present, the entire group is worth less than $50 Billion dollars. There is lots of growth potential there, and it is ripe to be profited from.

So go... take this advise and profit yourself the world.

And yes - I know I referred to a second worldwide crisis, but I will not pontificate on that at this moment. I leave it as an exercise of the reader to figure out what the crisis of longevity is, and what its story is.

Reading while I Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:41:00 +0000

It started as an experiment. At first, I wasn't sure that it would be enjoyable. I wasn't sure that it would sufficiently pass the time.

On Feb 15, I downloaded two "Free Audiobooks" from the Internet. They were free because I didn't have to pay for them, as opposed to "The World is Flat" Audiobook which had cost me about $30 last summer. This is the now-famous "The Thread" e-mail post from Feb 15, describing my reading choices.

I'm driving to New Jersey tonight, and instead of hoping to get a strong enough signal with my portable satellite radio (which lacks a powerful receiver for such things), I am hooking up the iPod to my Auxillery input and (sic) reading some choice literature.

Free Audiobooks:

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
read by Cory Doctorow

Go to the download page from archive.org

I figured y'all might be interested in downloading it for your own pleasure. You might also be interested in novels by the reader, which are also digitally free.

One of which, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, is available as its own audiobook (as read by Mark Forman, who is just some random blogger).

Download Down and Out:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

In any case, I have become a believer in Audiobooks as a means of storytelling during long car trips, and I have mainly Cory Doctorow to thank for it. During the month that has past since that inaugural experience, I have even more good news. It turns out there is a HUGE project on-line which has the goal of establishing an Audiobook archive of literature that they are legally permitted to record. Librivox: acoustical liberation of books in the public domain

After a brief search through their selection of completed works today, I have found a good selection of pieces that I would be interested in. First, there is Fiction. Then, there is Non-Fiction.

Fiction

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Read by Annie Coleman, Total runtime: 13:25:01
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Read by Denny Sayers, Total runtime: 13:55:12
Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable by Mary Godolphin (adapted from another author)
Read by Denny Sayers, Total runtime: 2:59:18
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Read by Chip, Total runtime: 01:23:23
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Read by David Barnes, Total Runtime: 2:34:25
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Read by Stewart Wills, Total Runtime: 24:37:50
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Read by Chere Theriot, Total Runtime: 2:12:02
The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe
Read by Reynard T. Fox, Total Runtime: 1:34:21
Richard of Jamestown a Story of the Virginia Colony by James Otis
Read by Laura Caldwell, Total Runtime: 3:08:09
Treasure Island by Robert Loius Stevenson
Read by Adrian Praetzellis, Total Runtime: 7:32:32
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Read by John Greenman, Total Runtime: 18:06:33
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Read by Lizzie Driver, Total Runtime: 11:10:32
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Read by Steve Andersen, Total runtime: 13:42:35
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Read by John Gonzalez, Total Runtime: 6:19:46

Non-Fiction

Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes
Read by D.E. Wittkower, Total Runtime: 3:29:09
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Read by Jeanette Ferguson, Total Runtime: 4:02:45
Three Great Virtues Three Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read by Robert Scott, Total Runtime: 3:31:40
The Autobigraphy of Benjamin Franklin
Read by Gary Gilberd, Total Runtime: 7:30:39
Of the Injustice of Counterfeiting Books by Immanuel Kant
Read by D.E. Wittkower, Total Runtime: 0:27:05
Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Read by Christian Pecaut, Total Runtime: 6:30:48
Wage, Labour, and Capital by Karl Marx
Read by Carl Manchester, Total Runtime: 1:42:26
Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Read by ej, Total Runtime: 2:45:45
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Read by Gord Mackenzie, Total running time: 1:21:19
Roughing It by Mark Twain
Read by John Greenman, Total Runtime: 16:56:20

OCW: System Safety

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Lately I have been undertaking the task of becoming interested in the AeroAstro programs at MIT. This is mostly due to my job at a company which is involved with Project Constellation and which has an affiliation with MIT, which I have discussed here in the past.

At some point I will write in more detail about the specific labs which interest me, but for now I have concluded that a good way to learn more would be to pick a course that interests me and read the lecture notes on MIT's OpenCourseWare.

Thus, the first class at MIT which I am reading about is System Safety offered by Nancy Levenson who is the Director of the Complex Systems Research Laboratory.

It actually correlates to a course I took at Stevens that was taught by Linda Laird called Software Reliability Engineering, and it turns out that Laird is using Levenson's book in addition to her own these days.

In any case, I expect it to be interesting.

Colonization

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:34:00 +0000

A topic that is of great interest to me is the concept of colonizing a celestial body. According to some, we have a Darwinian imperative to inhabit the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Moreso, we pretty much have the technology and when you get down to it, it would be pretty freaking cool.

The most interesting thing is that NASA actually has real plans to steer their future missions towards the establishment of a Lunar(1) Outpost(2). In 12 years, they are supposed to make it back to the Moon. During that time, it is conceivable to construct a living environment to support human life for extended periods of time. Certainly, a look at the International Space Station Resupply Calendar easily demonstrates that we can support the lives of a limited number of human lives with resources that can be launched to them. Additionally, current research through the academic world and the Mars Society are answering questions about what it would be like to simulate life on Mars (the isolation, the limited resources) and they are blogging about it.

My question is, "What are the plans to create permanent, independent colonies?" Specifically, when the British tried to establish the Roanoke Colony in Virginia (1586), it failed (more less famous failures here). Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620) were successful.

What I think we need is a plan to make the Lunar and Maritan Outposts self-sustainable. We all remember when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated into the atmosphere and caused a 2-3 year period while NASA investigated the problem. Thankfully, the Russians were around to resupply the ISS program with resources during those years. But with life on the Moon or Mars, I think we can't afford to assume that resupply missions will always be possible. I believe in providing the astronauts with a system to produce their own resources.

I think that the hardest question for celestial colonization is how to design that system.

Bar Economics

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:50:00 +0000

Let me tell you about how I spent Valentine's Day 2008. I was at John Harvard's with a smart, platonic friend (I have to say platonic because of the day it was). She designs airplane engines. I design guidance software. We were talking about engineering-type work.

At some point, a guy sitting adjacent from us chimed in and asked if we were engineers. He seemed interesting. He had some opinions on production and running businesses. It turned out he was visiting Harvard from Houston for a conference on energy. We talked a little bit about politics and the upcoming election, then the conversation turned economic in nature. The gentleman we were with was decidedly over 50 years of age, and it seemed like he was interested in our 25 year old opinion. Meanwhile, we were interested in his thoughts. The stimulating exchange of ideas was quite pleasant.

However, after 30-45 minutes, the conversation became uncomfortably ideological and it was clear that his ideology was quite dissimilar to my ideology. One specific question he framed was, "Who do you trust more, government or business?" I thought about it, and the true answer was "neither". I said that both are prone to screw things up, but with further reflection I can say that I trust government more. He argued that businesses were the trustworthy ones and cited the government as having a monopoly within the country. A monopoly that made it impossible for businesses to compete in certain ways... more on that later. He also wasn't happy with the way government spent his tax dollars. I would tend to agree, but I'm at the top of the welfare support system in this country as a beneficiary of 3+ years of software engineering work for various projects sponsored by the national defense budget.

He made one clever point that can be summed up in a tabular format.

	On A Product For Me	For Somebody Else
Spending My Money	Quality is high, Price is low	Quality is low, Price is low
Somebody Else's Money	Quality is high, Price is high	Quality is low, Price is high

Essencially, his distrust in government boiled down to his feeling that they fit into the "Spending somebody else's money on somebody else" camp. He started preaching negatively about government and in particular, income tax. He basically told us public schools are horrible in Texas, and he was griping about having to send his semi-dyslexic fourth grader to a private school because the public schools didn't have programs to get through to the boy. He was upset that every six weeks his maids would quit so that they could go collect unemployment. But yeah, he was really, really ticked off at the IRS. He said that his tax bill was $2.2 M on $400k of earnings. That made him want to leave the country because his view was that the government was wasting all the tax money he was paying. Thusly, I met an upper class slob who is in the market to relocate his under-performing business to Dubai.

His business, by the way, is apparently in the energy industry. You can check them out if you want. It turns out that he is the first guy under the "Leadership" page. So, part of his gripe is that energy (gas and electric) is regulated in a way that makes competition hard for company's in the industry (think Enron). He thinks the regulations stifle innovation in a way that yields power generation inefficiencies that are no higher than they were when Edison opened the world's first power plant in Downtown Manhattan (which he claimed was 30% efficiency). He advocates making use of the heat that is a product of the process to convert energy into a usable format, instead of letting it go to waste. In theory and practice, his logic is sound. But he was upset with the way the industry is structured so that their is no incentive for increases in efficiencies, because of the way the government collects taxes on additional revenue and so it isn't worth it to the industry to work twice as hard for the marginal increase in profits. And he complained about the public monopoly on education. He said there was no incentive for schools in Texas to have a program for his semi-dyslexic son, and they were much happier having him pull the kid out and sending him to a private school that could give him the attention he needed. I think that is more of a statement on Texas schools then the nation as a whole (my local high school certainly had special needs programs).

All-in-all I had a unique and interesting conversation, despite the fact that by the end I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there to get away from the lecture that I mostly disagreed with.

2nd Degree Burns

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:38:00 +0000

I almost lit my apartment on fire last night. I was prepping for a easy-going night with friends and I was set on making Shrimp Tempura Cocktails... but as I was heating the oil to fry the shrimp with everything went to hell. The smoke alarm went off. The damned pot caught on fire. Then I fucking had to bring the scalding hot pot to burn itself to death outside, and in the process I gave myself a 2nd Degree burn on my right hand.

I called the fire department and when they arrived they threw the burning pot into the snow, which extinguished it. Everything that happened after that is a mixture of awesome and luck. Mwah.

Retrospective

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:39:00 +0000

I just wanted to point out that I was right. I wasn't ballsy enough to go out of a limb to predict a NYG victory, but minutes before the game I had said that if the spread had been as small as +6 for the NYG (the Vegas Line was +13), that I would have taken Big Blue in a bet. Unfortunately, hidesight is 20/20 and gambling on the game for real never occurred to me.

The Play-by-Play tells the tale, though. The story that is being told is that the Giants got 5 sacks and knocked Brady down 23 times. The story that isn't being told, one which I think has as much relevance to the outcome of the game, is the injury report (or lack thereof). Going into the game, the only Patriot on New England's injury report was Tom Brady (right shoulder). Granted, this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody because sources point out that he always has this injury. Always.

The real understory that isn't being discussed are the Patriot injuries *during* the game. Cornerbacks Randall Gay and Marvin Harrison felt pain. An article published after the fact points out that linebacker Rosevelt Colvin has been out since November and that cornerback Ellis Hobbs has been playing through pain since November. Late in the game, Right Guard Stephen Neal and Fullback Kevin Faulk were hurt. Neal had to leave the game. Faulk had a noticeable limp. And all of this also ignores that fact of Brady's right ankle injury that he suffered during the AFC Championship game.

Of course, maybe it is silly to criticize a team with injuries for losing. Lord knows they had to give it there all during the regular season. They had to seriously bare down in tough weeks like 8 and 11. Those 45+ point victories make the closer games like week 9 (4 pts), 12 (3 pts), 13 (3 pts), and 17 (3 pts) seem that much tougher. I mean, if they had legitimately rested their sore players... they probably wouldn't have had that perfect regular season.

Or maybe I am over-analyzing it, and the reason for the Patriot collapse was as simple as this.

Late Night Brawl

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:59:00 +0000

The first thing I have to ask, why can't CNN cover the news? Why must they insist on doing the minimum? From time to time, they don't even spell-check the Associated Presses articles that they reprint, but that isn't what I am griping about today. Today's complaint is about a specific article.

Conan, Stewart and Colbert's 'feud' erupts

My complaint is that they (through their copy-and-paste of the Associate Press article) are only REPORTING the news, when they could quite simply let me EXPERIENCE it. This is the Internet. A series of Tubes. Not a truck. Information exists everywhere, and there is no reason to simply talk about it. The days of the water-cooler are dead. The Age of the Link to Freely Available Original Content is here!

The following clips are all from Monday, February 4, 2008. They each deal with an escalating turn of events surrounding the question of "Who created Mike Huckabee?" Enjoy!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The Colbert Report

Late Night with Cohen O'Brien

There you have it. After 20 minutes, you get entertainment and you get to EXPERIENCE this news story as if you had been there. Isn't this series of Tubes wonderful?