Blog Moved

I combined my blog with my website. You can find it now here.

4chan: Defenders of the Internet?

4chan is at it again, bless their little trollish hearts. They've taken up the role of vigilante force for the media pirates on the Internet. I pointed out at some point in the past that the evolution of the Internet would include a de-facto police force, since meat space jurisprudence can't work at cyber speed. I think we are starting to see that take place.

The current tactics, however, will probably not make much of an impact. The sites being targeted are of very little economic importance. If you take down the web site for a bunch of lawyers, you are really aren't affecting their ability to do their job. However, if they start to wise up and focus their efforts on better targets, they could have a significant impact.

For example, if one were to properly approach the problem, then the impact to commerce must be maximized. There are a number of weak spots they could focus on. I wonder the effect of DDOS'ing a major motion picture studio's web site for a new movie, right before the big release. If it could have an impact on the opening weekend numbers, then you might have something. Particularly, if the studio blamed the failure of their movie on 4chan. Now that would make CNN and the other studios would sit up and take notice. They also might think really hard about their participation in the RIAA campaigns.

Of course it could stir up the Obama justice squad, too.

Antibiotics, Sewage and Superbugs

Do you know where the next plague will come from? Neither do I, but the smart money might be on the sewage treatment plant around the corner from your house. The medical establishment has known for a while that the over prescribing of common antibiotics has created a series of newly resistant bacteria. I submit that the sludge slithering under your street may be a bigger problem in the long run.

Very few antibiotics are fully metabolized. You excrete some amount whenever you use the toilet. When you are sick, you excrete some of the bacteria as well. Plus, there are many types of moderately harmful bacteria that exist in even the cleanest bathrooms such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, E-coli, Salmonella and Campylobactor. All this is floating around in raw sewage, which is a fantastically rich growth medium.

So what you have here is a large, open air petri dish. Bacteria are free to grow, divide and mutate at will. Combine multiple strains of bacteria competing within this medium and you have a little evolutionary microcosm, with weaker strains dying and the stronger flourishing. Just wait until one of the winners hitches a ride out of the plant and makes its way to the general population.

Is the risk small? Certainly. Is it zero? You wish.

Android and the Linux Desktop

I'm going to break one of my own rules by making a prediction. The year of the Linux desktop will be in 2014. Now, let's talk about how I've arrived at this conclusion.

Android is picking up steam, and from what I've seen, I don't think there will be anything to stop it. Apple currently owns more market share and the iPad will give Mr. Jobs a momentary boost, but the problem is this; Apple controls the hardware and the software. There is no room for any other company to make money. And companies love money.

In the past, this would have meant that Motorola, Samsung, et al would have gone it alone to attempt to control a piece of the market. But, with android they can join forces to an extent and take advantage of a huge development community. This "friendly" competition will push prices down and keep android more affordable than the iPhone. Also, this results in Apple vs. the world, AND Apple doesn't have significant vendor lock in. Additional factors are: AT&T's quality of service, and the Google factor. There should be a strong and steady migration to the android smartphone platform with a strongly superior market share by mid 2011.

The Ipad may revolutionize computing, but my bet is more like a solid selling niche product. However, android is hot on it's heels in this market as well, with a number of tablets soon to be released at significantly lower price points. Based on early price projections, the rest of the market is aiming to undercut the iPad significantly. At the current estimates, I would expect for android to surpass the iPad's market share by late 2012.

With one or two important computing platforms invading people lives, it will eventual become necessary to get more serious with some of the data and applications. While touch interfaces are a leap forward in usability in the mobile arena, they aren't very information dense compared to a keyboard. Imagine writing a book using gestures. Therefore, there will be a natural progression toward systems that allow the user to more fully utilize the android environment.

This may come in the form of an android based netbooks or a full linux distro. I'm expecting android netbooks to hit the market around mid 2012. If the price point stays in line with the currnet android tablet projections, there should be significant market share by early 2014.

Thus, we have the year of the Linux Desktop (er, netbook)

Ubuntu usabilty is going downhill

I have a serious usability issue with the MI at a corporate installation.

When a new instant message is received with the chat window closed, we have to navigate a menu to interact with it. Click-Navigate-click. Before, we simply double-clicked the flashing icon and the window appeared. This might not seem like much to many of you, but they have to deal with 100-150 email/IM interactions a day. This is a major PITA.

I've deployed Lucid on about 6 desktops with individuals all expressing the same problem. I've delayed the roll-out on the additional machines until I could determine the suitability for deployment for the rest of the organization.

The general perception is that NotifyOSD is taunting them with the message without an immediate solution. This isn't a fair characterization, but it persists. People are a little frustrated. I'm going to have to pull the MI at this location if I'm going to continue to deploy Lucid.

They've been running lucid since beta1. That's about two months. With the current rate of interactivity, if they haven't learned it by now, they aren't going to.

Is this a corner case? I'll leave it for you to decide.

Celebrity Muses

After the Quail Hollow golf tournament was over and Tiger failed to qualify, I started wondering about the reasons for his failure. Most of sport writers assumed that it was the recent public revelations of his infidelity and the distractions associated with it.

However, what if the issue is a little deeper. One could argue that as a professional athlete, Tiger knew exactly what he needed to be at the best in the his game. And perhaps the quenching of his libido with a harem of trashy chicks might have had medicial purposes. Medical science has established the people will subconsciously self-medicate. Perhaps these dalliances are necessary to perform at his level?

Another related example is that of Aaron Sorkin, the writer for "The West Wing", "Sport Night" and few other well known TV shows and films. He had a rather public arrest at an airport with marijuana, mushrooms and other assorted mind altering substances. At first, he stated that he used them for the creative process. But then the PC police cracked down and he "admitted" he had a problem. Went through rehab and everything. Hasn't written a descent script since.

In the PC world, Tiger was probably just a skirt chaser. But in the UW world, maybe not...

Android is more than a phone

Google is a self described information company, so why would they enter into the phone market? One obvious answer is that they see mobile as a major advertising platform and wanted to capture the market. While this is true, it's not the full story.

Google's thing is information and this has to be captured in some fashion. We all know that Google makes use of the data we submit in searches, gmail and gtalk. They have even sent around street view vehicles to take pictures of our houses and streets. But with android, they no longer have to do this. We are doing a lot for them. Through use of android, we are a mass of mobile information gathering nodes for the Google collective.

For example, Google would be very interested in the locations of the wireless hotspots you've run into today. You can also correct navigation data on the fly and crowd-source traffic information. You already upload pictures to picasa with geotag information. And the GPS records your coming and goings while driving, working and shopping. All valuable information to marketers and this information is silently recorded by your android handset.

In many ways this is a little creepy. Big brother and all that. But in others, this is a great experiment in digitizing the human experience. We just need to be vigilant that our rights are not trampled along the way.

Linux and Open Source Adoption

After several years running Linux and Windows side by side, it appears that the current barrier to Linux adoption at this point are the applications available. Openoffice is nice for 90% of users, but for presentation, powerpoint slaps it hard. Plus you can't print a fripping envelope in OpenOffice to save your life. (Bug reported over 7 years ago) I use a console for games, so this isn't an issue for me, but others are really left out in the cold. I am tied to Intuit, which I hate with a passion reserved for child molesters. So I have to run those apps in Vbox. The Linux alternatives do not provide the capabilities that Money or Quicken do, unfortunately.

The O/S is sound on the right hardware. I tried Windows 7 on my new laptop, but it was a pig. Slow, with tons of crap I had to uninstall. I don't like reinstalling O/S's, and I shouldn't have to. Windows maintenance became too much for me to handle. I have multiple RAID's, which were always dodgy under XP. Linux is a much easier install when it works. When it doesn't, well the wheels fall off. I try to tailor my system with compatible hardware. Laptops are a different story. Right now my touchpad is better than Win 7, but not perfect. And my microphone doesn't work for web chat.

Bottom line, linux is lacking in many ways, but for me Windows was as well. But I don't have to deal with license keys and activation which are a pestilence on the face the earth. Plus I can put together systems from spares and they have sufficient horsepower to make them useful.

When the apps finally come around, adoption will follow.

UI Design and Risk-Reward Behaviour

Mark Shuttleworth responded to criticism over the changes to the new Lucid window themes with allusion to the fact that new and neat things are coming that justify the change.

Sometimes it’s worthwhile to step outside the envelope and try something new. But always remember that humans respond to risk-reward behavior. If you are going to force them to do something new or risky, there needs to be a reward equal to the risk otherwise the user wont adapt.

In the case of the latest design changes, the reward was promised after the fact, but not given. Thus, it is a massive design fail. Yes there were opinions provided and these can be ignored because of meritocracy rules. But good UI design needs to be based on fact. And the facts were not there to justify the change. This was pointed out. And hopefully completely understood.

The Silence of the Blogosphere

I've noticed a disturbing development in Ubuntu. I've complained about the design changes instigated by the Ayatana UX team, particularly the recent change to place the windows controls on the left. But something more troubling is afoot. A thread on ubuntuforums is showing a 76% preference for the old control location. Given this significant percentage, you would expect some level of outcry on the Ubuntu Planet, the official blog aggregator for Ubuntu members. Until today, not a peep. Scott Ritchie, a heavily involved member fired the first volley. This is a little Orwellian. I'm getting really concerned about the UniqueVision(TM) of Ubuntu if they foster an environment that people don't feel like that can speak their mind on what is a commercially driven community project. Mark Shuttleworth has stated that this is his vision and his baby, but Ubuntu would be nothing more that his idle hobby without community support. I'm wondering if this is related to free speech in the UK vs. the USA?

Ubuntu: The natives are restless

Well, it hit the fan finally. The unrest concerning the UI changes in Ubuntu are starting to steam roll. The thread at ubuntu forums is growing. A particularly volatile bug has been filed on launchpad, sufficiently uncivil that the the great maker Mark Shuttleworth himself had to chime in.

From the best I can determine, there was considerable discussion within the Ayatana group over the different button placements in other OS's and whcih was superior. The problem was that they weren't trying to overcome any particular issue. It appears to be a change just to set Ubuntu apart visually.

Gather round developers. Let this be a teachable moment. When you create a closed group of designers and remove voices that don't agree with your UniqueVision(TM) you get this type of result. Dissent is important in all walks of life. It is in the chaos of adversarial debate where the best ideas are forged.

Ubuntu: Linux for Boneheads

Those of you that follow the development of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx might be caught by surprise regarding some of the new design decisions being made by Canonical. Their Ayatana project was created to revitalize the Ubuntu desktop by trying to resolve usability issues. While a lot of the approaches have shown merit, some have been downright stupid.

I've been particularly critical of the decision concerning the removal of functionality in libnotify. The Ayatana group decided that allowing interactive notifications was against their master plan, guaranteeing a thousand solutions to the problem and forcing new paradigms on the user. Their decision to use pop downs for the update manager simultaneously annoys the advanced user while opening serious security holes for the noob.

But these pale in comparison their latest faux pas. They have decided in their infinite wisdom to change the control layout for the windows in the gnome desktop. That's right, they have moved the close, minimize and maximize to the left side of the window just like the mac. Little mind was apparently paid to the disruption of the existing users. Even less paid to the users that have to work in two desktops, the other 90% likely to be in Windows. And none whatsoever to individuals thinking about transitioning, again most likely from Windows.

I have great respect for the work done by Canonical. They have added stability to the chaos of open source. But it's apparent that they are starting to believe there own press releases. These changes smack of a group that thinks it's visionary, but in reality isn't sufficiently open to listen to reason. This current design choice will kill any possibly of poaching market share from Microsoft while annoying current users. I've spent considerable time championing their cause, but it is obvious to me that they are going a different direction. I think it's time to look at the competition.

The Conservative Argument FOR Same Sex Marriage

With California's prop 8 being challenged, I thought I would outline an argument for conservatives that would support Same Sex Marriage. That's right, I said supporting. For a conservative, there are actually good reasons that SSM should be accepted.

First, married couples live longer and healthier lives. Studies have show that people in stable relationships are happier and more content than their single counterparts. If you forget the fact that these individuals are of the same sex, approach it from a fiscal conservative side. You want people to prosper so that society doesn't have to shell out cash for supporting or incarcerating them. In other words, SSM is cheaper than the alternative.

Second, removing freedom is not small government conservatism. Creating rules to enforce undesired criminal behaviors is justified. Doing the same to enforce moral codes is fascist (Think Mussolini). Enforcing morality is the purpose of Islamic Sharia law. If you think that Christian moral codes are somehow different than Islamic, think again. Both are Abrahamic religions and share the same origins. The reason their societies seem brutal is BECAUSE they enforce old testament beliefs.

Third, it doesn't harm marriage. The argument that it leads to the individuals marrying animals or trees is ridiculous on it's face. Marriage is a contract. Plants and animals cannot legally give consent to marriage, thus it can't happen. Therefore, existing laws protect us from this possibility and no additional laws are needed.

The conservative case for SSM is quite strong. The opposition however, is rooted in the same tired religious arguments that opposed civil rights and women's suffrage. We all know how those turned out.

The Purveyors of Cyberjustice

It's official. Anonymous has declared war on Australia. Is the outback ready for the Internet's grand legion of cellar dwellers at 4chan? This isn't the first time Anonymous has taken up a cause, and probably not the last. What is interesting is that random, interconnected groups of people are pooling resources and causing havoc for a cause. Vigilante justice isn't unusual and is older than governments themselves. Which leads one to an interesting thought experiment. On the Internet we see virtual versions of the constructs that are part of our corporeal life; Communication, Gaming, Dating, Sex, etc. It's a wild west with no form of control or authority and it works pretty well. And now we have Anonymous. Could we be seeing a form of organization emerging from the chaos? The beginning of a permanent anarchical justice force, perhaps?

In the case of 4chan, there is an urge to do something bigger than themselves, either due to outrage or just for the lulz. I have no doubt that in the old west some people joined in on posses for the kicks. And we see that here. Like so many things, the beginnings are a little raw. But through this constructive chaos could we see something bigger than the sum of it's parts? Several years ago a company created a anti-spam concept called “Blue Frog” that used the power of the Internet collective to rain terror on spammers. It worked for a while, until the company came under attack and folded. The weakness with Blue Frog wasn't the idea. It was the centralized command and control of that managing organization. But Anonymous doesn't suffer from this limitation. It is a swarm and essentially headless. And capable of instantly responding when attacked. Spammers and malware authors have the edge in lead time compared to our justice system which is used to prosecute them. Anonymous doesn't suffer this limitation.

There may be a role for Internet justice in the future. Whether it involves Anonymous is an open question.

Healthcare - Market Reform

A core problem with the American health care system is that its market is fundamentally flawed. Part of this is due to laws created to provide humanitarian treatment during medical emergencies. In 1986, congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Before EMTALA, if you showed up at an emergency room without proof of insurance, you could be turned away. Under this new law, hospitals would be required to provide services no matter the financial status of the patient.

Under EMTALA, there became less of an incentive for people to get insurance since emergency care would always be provided. And since the uninsured will be will be far less likely to pay their bill, someone has to cover these costs which are estimated at 55% of all emergency services. This results in hospitals raising their prices for services, which typically falls on the insured, raising premiums. Thus, you have a perverse incentive for the purchase of health insurance.

A large percentage of the uninsured are young healthy Americans. These individuals would contribute more to insurance revenues rather than costs. Therefore, a possible solution is to require obligatory coverage. By doing so, we expand the risk pool of Americans to lower per capita insurance costs. Since most Americans are now insured, the cost of EMTALA is reduced, which lowers costs across the board. This is a market based approach to the concept of socialized medicine.

There is another positive side effect. Since insurance is mandatory, anyone showing up for treatment without insurance would most like be an undocumented alien. These individuals could be treated and turned over to immigration officials thus easing the loads on ICE. However, it is also likely that illegals would purchase insurance to prevent easy discovery. Either outcome is a net positive for health care.

As a libertarian, the thought of mandated insurance is in exact opposite to my core principles. But the other solution is to turn away people at the hospital that are not insured or don't have an insurance bond. I'm not sure any libertarian could support that ideal.

Healthcare - Cost Benefit Analysis

People complain about HMO's and “drive-by medicine." They say that hospital stays should be longer and more comprehensive. But what happens when the controls are released and the floodgates are open? Let’s say that an indigent mother gives birth to a premature child. We have the medical technology to save the child. But at what cost? $100,000 to $1,000,000 is not uncommon for this type of service today. Perhaps you think it's ok for the taxpayer to foot this bill at this level. But, what happens when it becomes $10,000,000?

We have not come to the point of accepting that actuarial decisions MUST be part of health care. If you have X dollars to spend and there is a request for $1,000,000 in treatment for a single case, it has to be determined how that money is best spent. A bleeding heart liberal would say the insurance companies make too much profit so make them save everyone. But the insurance companies just pass those costs on to the consumers, which is our current problem.

On a related note, will someone please take Sarah Palin moose hunting and not bring her tired ass back? Her idiocy in blabbering about supposed “Death Panels” was the stupidest thing that a conservative could have done. End of life counseling was the one sound fiscally conservative aspect of the heath care reform bill. But no, politics are more important than real reform.

Tough Questions on Healthcare Reform

I was watching Dateline last night when they covered problems people were having getting insurance companies to cover treatment. The show was named "Critical Condition" and it was pretty heartbreaking to watch. The theme of the show was that insurance companies were denying critical treatment for patients. My thinking is there were much bigger issues at play. And these issues didn't have as simple answers as you were led to believe.

The first segment was on Patrick Gannon, who suffered a heart attack at 41. The doctors applied $1,000,000 worth of treatment to the man to save his life over the course of several weeks. The result was a man that required full time care, unable to walk, talk or mange his own life. After paying out all that money, the insurance company opted for a cheaper rehabilitation route that the one that family wanted. The claimed result is that this approach drastically affected Patrick outcome.

Let's remove the emotion. The doctors performed $1M of treatment on a poor outcome that left Patrick in a predicable state and probably wouldn't have knowingly consented to. It destroyed his family financially in the process. To apply that much medical intervention on an infarction, you have to be dealing with little more than a corpse. Someone during this period should have realized that this was going to be a very bad outcome and let him die peacefully. The emotional and financial toll on his family will continue and it's unknown how it will affect his daughter. There isn't a good answer to all this, but I'm really not seeing the insurance company as the bad guy here. I'm surprised they covered as much as they did.

The second was a firefighter named Rick Crusoe with a rare form of cancer. The insurance company balked at an experimental treatment that had a 10%-15% chance of prolonging his life an undetermined length of time. I can't speak specifically to the numbers involved, but they were requesting an authorization of up to $250,000. Would you give up your house for a 15% of helping someone live for a couple of months maybe years? I'm not sure many people would take that bet. Maybe a grieving mother or husband. How many lives could that money save if put to better use like paying for vaccines or other more certain treatment?

For last patient, we have Nataline Sarkisyan who was in need of a liver transplant. It was about $500,000 for a bridge to keep her alive for many months while they continued to treat her leukemia. My reading is that the treatment will probably kill her new liver and she would have to have another later on. They had already authorized a bone marrow transplant that could run up to $700,000. We could be looking at a total of $1.7M and that's assuming she could find the second liver. Again, where is this money best spent?

In summary, I got the following from this report. First, medical costs are too high. This is obvious, but they always will be as long as research is expensive and risky. Therefore, we need to deal with this reality. Second, if you have insurance, you hope that your money isn't being wasted on questionable medical decisions that will increase your costs. However, if it's your loved one, you want them to spend everything they have. This is referred to as The Prisoner's Dilemma. Someone external to the situation needs to make those decisions. Currently, only the insurance companies will do it because it affects their bottom line. And perhaps that's the best way. Honestly with the material presented, I didn't fault them for their decisions.

Third, doctors need to understand long term quality of life issues relating to the decisions that they make. Traumatic Brain Injury or Neurological Impairment with regard to heroic lifesaving measures are life shattering and a poor outcomes can usually be predicted early. Present the facts clearly so families can make sound decisions. But even then, people will override medical advice. And Patrick Gannon may have well been one of those cases.

What is the iPad?

I'm watching all the Apple fanboys buzzing over the new iPad. General consensus seems to be that it's underwhelming, but I think Apple may have found an interesting market niche. It's not a computer and it not a competitor for the netbook segment. It's a media/surf terminal. A little toy you piddle with while you're watching TV to answer questions that pop up like "Who played Lumpy on leave it to beaver?" or "What else was that actor in?". Or perhaps you look up the playoff scores and read your email. Just Plain Old Surfing. New acronym - JPOS (tm)- you heard it here first! :)

A lot of people use their laptops for this type of stuff (me included). But if you don't have a laptop and you find your iPhone or Droid is a little inadequate for regular couch surfing, this would be a better replacement that a $$$ macbook. IMHO, a netbook is a better and more versatile option, but for an Apple person, it isn't as desireable. As for mass market adoption, you might snag some ebook people and perhaps some that find it a sexier alternative to the eeePC. But I don't see another iPod craze on the horizon.

My only question is ergonomics. What does it do to your wrists to balance that thing for a couple of hours? You can't read it if you lay it down. And how do you use the keyboard on your lap? Time will tell.

On the Nature of Human Intelligence

What is the nature of intelligence? Is it just you or the sum of you and any tools you have at your disposal? For the purposes of an IQ test, it would be just the organic part. However, on your job were it really counts, all bets are off. You are allowed any trick in the book to achieve your goal. And in your personal life, you set the rules. I submit that we have already entered the Cyborg age. It may not be exactly what you expected from reading science fiction, but the details are just speed and interface.

The typical techie has some type of wireless Internet access at most times, be it 3G, EVDO or wifi hotspot. With this technology, you are able to access such on-line resources such as Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, or the Internet Move Database. If you can access this information at any time and place, doesn't it make it part your smarts? I mean you can get the information, perhaps not with the speed of Marilyn vos Savant. But you could easily wax her tail with the sheer volume of information available. Who played Lumpy on leave it to Beaver? Suck on that, Marilyn. It's given that only part of intelligence is pure recall, but it's an important part. Original and theoretical constructs are key piece of total cranial horsepower. But even each of these are based on a foundation of basic recall.

You could argue based on the premise that we have been in the Cybernetic age since the first written word. But I submit that carrying around the Library of Congress is impractical. It is only the confluence of wireless devices and the Internet that finally makes the total of human knowledge available on demand.

There was a time when students weren't allowed to use calculators during a test. Now its pretty common if not encouraged. And now we are seeing Internet access accepted on tests as well. Thus, the total of the human experience now includes handheld devices.

The biggest threat to Microsoft is Microsoft

I was reading this article on Microsoft having it's revenue eroded because of low cost hardware. The author made some interesting points, but I think there is a bigger issue that Microsoft is facing. While the market is pushing toward lower cost hardware, this trend has been going on for years and isn't the big problem. The elephant in the room resides in your pocket, lets mom know you're safe and comes with nifty ringtones.

Modern PC's are used for a great many tasks and they do them quite well. So well in fact that the only technological advances that we've seen in this area have been incremental. Quicken 2008 looks like 2009 and 2010. We've plateaued, at least for now. Current innovations are in real-time, portable, personal media and communications. PC's aren't the platform and never will be.

Smartphones are the new technological touchstone. They are dynamic, constantly following us on our kinetic lives, connecting us with our loved ones and documenting our adventures. And now they are the interface for the human experience. Witness the smarthone's effect on the Iranian revolution. Apple saw this to some extent and threw fuel on the fire with the iPhone. RIM(Blackberry) is playing catch-up but appears to be hobbled by their devotion to corporate America. Android is a small but growing contender. Microsoft, however, completely blew it. It has had a foothold in smartphones since the Palm days, but couldn't close.

The reason? Microsoft's financial foundation is built upon legacy revenue streams. It is this market that it's afraid to disrupt. And all new technology is fundamentally disruptive. Smartphones could eat into the PC's market if they became too powerful. Why buy Outlook when your email and calendar are in you hand? And who will buy a $300 package for a smartphone they probably got for free? It's not a platform for Microsoft's sales model.

Thus they made the conservative choice and failed to innovate. This is a very serious problem for them as it appears that the consumer market is moving away from the platforms that Windows is geared towards. Windows 7 is a move in the right direction, but the competitors are nipping at its heels. The reality is that Microsoft is being outflanked in nearly all areas, with the possible exception of the Xbox.

What will the future hold? Microsoft has touted that Windows is installed on over 75% of all new netbooks. However, this is considerably less than the 90% dominance that it enjoys on the PC market. If this trend holds, then we will see further market erosion. Firefox has already established itself on 30% of PC's and according to some sources will soon approach 50%. Clearly, Microsoft is losing consumer mindshare. The safe money appears to be on the open source software movement from which Linux, Android, your beloved Tivo and to some degree Apple Mac OS X are built upon.

The Real Green Revolution

I live in an area near one of the last hangouts of an endangered mussel known as the Carolina Heelsplitter. There has been considerable protest over this little critter in the last few years, bring development to a halt and even running a construction company out of business. I'm all for conservation, and don't really have a problem with the protests beyond they fact that they are affecting my ability to get to Taco Bell in a timely manner. But the group is a little fringy IMHO as I know a couple of them and some of their other causes. In particular the rush for renewable energy

I was wondering if those same people were aware of the side effects of the all the renewable technology they are pursuing. It's typically accepted that hydro power is pretty green, but check out this article. It's doesn't even describe the effect on fish migration and spawning which are well documented. We've seen the effect on diverting food crops to ethanol on the world food supply. Oops. That was quickly reversed. Wind affects the migration paths of birds. What happens when these confused avians get lost en mass, can't find mates and begin to decline in numbers? Solar appears to be pretty benign until the change in weather patterns starts affecting crops and food production.

Looks like a green revolution may occur with the green revolution.

The Panty Bomber

With all the outrage over lax security, it is inevitable that we will enact further weird and useless measures to make our flights safe. Military tacticians have stated that in asymmetrical warfare, the defender is always at a disadvantage. We continually spend money to patch up the current crisis, while new attack vectors are already being planned. They started with traditional hijacking involving guns and grenades in the 1970's. Our response was to install metal detectors. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, got everyone taking off their Nikes. Now the Underbomber has got us scrambling for body scanners.

Where does technology eventually lead us in this cat and mouse game? Let's move forward a few years to the era of the BioBomber. This twisted individual will ingest a cocktail of explosive ingredients. They might be poisonous, but not in the time frame that he is concerned with. Next, immediately before entering security he ingests a primer in a time delay capsule. Once the protective coating is breached, the explosive is triggered. This is the ultimate smartbomb. You are not going to find this dude by searching old ladies and toddlers. Do we intend on endoscoping all passengers? Of course, they could always go old school and set off a bomb vest in the security checkpoint, maybe even in the scanner.

The point is that the TSA is political theater designed to keep the masses feeling comfortable. If we expect to make people truly safe, no-fly lists and body scanners aren't the answer. You are going to have to take proactive measures that get to the root of the problem. People want to blow us up. Why is that? "W" said it was because they were evil. I doubt seriously it's that simple. Afghanistan and Pakistan house part of the problem, but let's not forget about Israel and Palestine. It is a festering wound that is a great source of many of our troubles and a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.

Before you flame me for giving them ideas, realize that they have already thought about this. What else are they going to do sitting up in a cave in Waziristan?

Am I the least interesting person in the world?

Seems like everyone on the intertubes is running their own blog, so I decided to jump in. My site at http://www.unconventional-wisdom.org houses a lot of extended essays on various topics relating to politics and technology. However, because of their formal nature, I don't update them more than once or twice a year. There are a lot more thoughts I'm interested in expressing, so I'm going to try a little stream of consciousness posting to see where that leads. No promises. I might well end up being the least interesting person in the world. :)

Stick around and let's see if I can amuse you.