The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • A little political humor, a little late

    A little political humor, a little late

    As soon as I read John Boehner’s characterization of financial regulation reform, I was inspired to make the following.  Unfortunately, this-and-that kept me occupied until today.

    Here’s a link (https://adfinemfidelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/poster.jpg) since Facebook inexplicably strips images(!) from imported RSS feeds…

    I made the poster using a tool located at Big Huge Labs.  I had wanted to use the similar took at despair.com but it did weird things to the scale and I couldn’t seem to make it work.

  • Why I have no respect for design behaviors at Microsoft

    I’ve received my new laptop and am working on getting it outfitted and up to speed.  (This process, by the way, is distressingly like moving to a new home and is equally as frustrating and potentially as traumatizing.)  After logging in for the first time, the system helpfully suggests that you create a system backup.  This is a wise and useful thing to do, so that you can restore to original conditions, and I was impressed that Microsoft offered it.

    Except…

    It takes fiendishly long to generate the system image — after about two hours of waiting, I gave up last night and went to bed.  During the night, the other “helpful” feature of Windows 7 kicked in, which was automatic downloading and installation of updates.  As anyone who works with Microsoft knows, you can’t even think about an update without Windows needing to reboot, which it did … automatically.  This interrupted the system backup, of course; and since the system has changed, the backup can’t even just pick up from where it left off.

    Net result?  I must begin the backup again and wait another two hours for it to run.   I will have had my laptop for over a day without being able to run a single program on it.  What is the overwhelming temptation, of course?  To skip the backup “for now” and just dive in.  So these two choices for Microsoft have the combined effect of discouraging proper computer hygiene — and for many users, probably taint the whole idea of backups in general.

    Way to go, Microsoft!

    (By the way, I have of course also now turned off the automatic install option, as it’s insane to let anyone just drop stuff into your operating system without at least some chance at review.  Once again I am reminded of a mantra I’ve had since at least Windows 95:  Whatever default behavior Microsoft settles on, it’s the wrong one.  We could call their philosophy “default-to-fail”.)

  • Excellent headline explaining why we’re headed for the next Great Depression

    Bravo, Paul Krugman!

    “The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack”

    Could we call this the phantom menace?  🙂

    The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack

  • Ethics and Economics in Journalism

    Via Ezra Klein, a well-argued piece by Timothy Lee on the recent flap over the forced resignation of Dave Weigel from The Washington Post.  If none of those names mean anything to you, then this is unlikely to be very interesting…  Lee’s thesis is that reportorial objectivity is more a function of the economies of scale of a major newspaper than any unquestionable principle of High Journalism.  And now that the economics of reporting have shifted, so too must our understanding of what is appropriate.

    And yes, I didn’t link to the Post because I happen to think they’re wrong on this one and I’m just petty enough to deny them the infinitesimal traffic I might contribute.

  • Lego-mania

    This is a mostly-pointless TED talk that celebrates the vast Lego culture … It’s fun even if it isn’t all that deep.

  • The first truly honest campaign ad of the season

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gwr8KJO0Fc

    I possess a sort of socialpathic narcississism.

    … in this beautiful state that I’ve grown to love, since I moved here… 18 months ago.

    All of my motives are ulterior.

    Vote Clint Webb!

  • Days of miracle and wonder, indeed

    For about ten years, I’ve been running a project in my Honors Physics course called Days of Miracle and Wonder (yes, title taken from a Paul Simon song).  In it, the students are asked to create a business case for a product or service not available today but likely to be so by 2030.  Although they are expected to construct a likely technological path from today’s state-of-the-art to that future product, they aren’t expected to actually build their device because, after all, it’s supposed to be 20 years away.

    In one of the early years, a team chose as its device a free-standing holographic display a la the chess scene on the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.  They presumed it would involve some sort of fast-spinning mirror.

    Today, I came across this — a SIGGRAPH paper and video demonstrating a free-standing three-dimensional display utilizing a fast-spinning mirror.  It’s about 20 years early.

    I guess I have to revise my project rubric.  😛

  • I might just be succumbing to the lure of reliving my misspent youth…

    … but this looks awesome.

  • The conservative contradiction

    In reflecting on Rand Paul and his ever-changing principles, the Lexington Herald-Ledger makes an interesting point about all the small-government types.  Perhaps it says less about the ranters who are leveraging widespread dissatisfaction into cynical grasps for office, and more about the contradiction lodged deep within democracy itself.

    In fairness, many of us are guilty of wanting the benefits of something — whether it’s board certification or full campaign coffers — without paying the price.

    …

    Or all the rest of us, who resent the chunk of change that government extracts from our pockets but want smooth roads, good schools, police and fire protection, national security, personal security in old age, free markets governed by laws, student loans, flood walls, lakes and parks and the list goes on.

    As people inveigle against “big government” and “runaway taxes” while paying less tax than any industrial nation and simultaneously living in an age of miracles … it might do well to remember that there ain’t no free lunch and that civilization isn’t gratis.

  • The President and the Ring

    I hate to turn into just a site that reposts The Daily Show but sometimes they’re spot on.  The continued failure of President Obama to live up to his pre-election rhetoric on the rule of law is the most galling development of his administration.

    The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
    Respect My Authoritah
    www.thedailyshow.com
    Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party