Semi-Regular Update (i.e. Twitter)

So, it's time for another post, eh? This will be brief. I've been finding myself using Twitter a lot because it's much faster/easier for those "semi-regular thoughts", which was the purpose of this blog to begin with. I seem to be sticking with Twitter a lot better than I ever have with a blog, so you might want to add that to the list of sites you watch. Here's the URL:

http://twitter.com/whereisderek

That's not to say I'll never add to this blog again, but I'm not going to make it a focus anymore. Generally, things I want to opine about and are longer than the 140-character limit that Twitter imposes will show up here.

The Problem With the Delta 747s

Well, aside from the fact that they are Northwest 747s that have been re-painted due to the merger, the biggest problem is the size of the lettering for the Delta logo.

Here is the repainted NWA 747-400 in Delta livery:


Now, compare that with the old (er, still "current" on some aircraft) NWA livery:


Or still, compare that with the livery of Virgin Atlantic, another large international airline:


So, which livery is the hardest to read at a distance? And which livery is the least imaginative/creative? The answer to those questions should not be Delta, which is now the largest airline in the world.

Double-whiskey, Coke no ice

The Hold Steady has roots in Minnesota, which is pretty cool.

I've sampled a few of their albums and generally one or two songs on each album is really good, but the rest are junk (IMHO, of course).

(Title comes from the song "Constructive Summer")

We Said Goodnight to Broadway, Giving It Our Best Regards

Very soon, it seems, I'll be working on development for delta.com. My manager is down in ATL today talking with some of our counterparts, er, colleagues, and it seems they're a little short-staffed.

This makes me a little sad. We put so much time into the redesign of nwa.com, and received a lot of accolades within the company and from the outside (customers, competitors, etc.). But day by day, it's slowly slipping away... :(

Two Links Diverged, and I, I Clicked Them Both

Coffee grounds as a new source of fuel? Yep, it's true:
http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2009/01/04/coffee-beans-as-the-next-great-auto-fuel/

Excess is out, frugality is in:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/04/us-economy-thrift-barack-obama

Screw Microsoft

Check out this post over at Ryan Rampersad's blog:

http://ryan.ifupdown.com/2008/11/19/save-the-developers-is-gone/

It seems Microsoft couldn't take a little heat from the developer community about the horrible Internet Explorer browser. So, they either bought out the website/domain name or threatened the website owner.

The old SaveTheDevelopers.org site now redirects to a download page for IE. And what's worse is that they're suggesting users download a beta copy of IE8 from that page. Regardless of Google's perpetual beta projects, applications in beta status are not meant for mass consumption.

Screw Microsoft.

Encouragement FAIL

Uh, are you kidding me?

I just received an invitation spam from HSBC Direct. Apparently, they want me to open a $25,000 or more CD with a craptacular 3.10% APY, and to encourage me to do it in the next six days, they're going to reward me with an extra $75. I know, a whole $75!

Let's do a simple calculation: $75 / $25,000 = 0.003. So, on a 3.10% APY CD, they're going to give me a three-tenths of a percent bonus for letting them use my $25k for the next six months.

FAIL.

Edited to correct my decimal place error.

Spending Other People's Time

I screwed up today.

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal, but my screw-up cost someone else time. And time is money, frustration, distraction from other tasks, and all of that.

Someone from another work area needed some help and wanted to use some code I had already written. So we debugged the application to figure out what was needed and then I provided the appropriate code to plug into their application. The work on their end should have taken five minutes or so. But the developer just came back to me saying he was having problems, so I went to help him debug his application. As it turns out, I forgot to paste in a necessary function when I emailed the code earlier today. So he spent about an hour trying things in code he was unfamiliar with, wondering if there were other problems, and generally wasting time. His time.

It's a lesson in completeness and attention to detail.

Hong Kong

Just returned from a short visit to Hong Kong with my brother. Each time I go back, I'm amazed at how much can be squeezed into such a small area (7m people in an area 25% the size of NYC). I know it's not the most densely-populated place on Earth, but at times it feels like it.

The weather was gorgeous and the food and sights were worth the price of admission, as always. I love how nearly everything you need can be found within a block or two from wherever you're at. And the public transit is just great; I think the Hong Kong MTR is kept cleaner than the Singapore subway system, and that's saying something.

Definitely a place to keep coming back to.

Friday Afternoon Apathy

It's Friday afternoon. Only on a Friday afternoon would I be able to tolerate Hall & Oates.

"You're outta touch, I'm outta time..."

Some things probably deserve to be left in the '80s.

Internet FTW

As an addendum to last night, the Internet also won big. Largest period of news traffic ever. See the pic below:



Source: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/news/index.html

Wow

Wow.

Whatever your politics are, you have to admit that last night, something pretty amazing happened. In the country which once enslaved blacks, counted them as 3/5 of a person, and not until 43 years ago were they fully guaranteed the right to vote, we have elected by a majority vote an African-American President.

It shouldn't be an issue. We shouldn't be marveling at our progress. But we have to, if only for a little while.

Improving the Electoral Process (Part 1)

As Americans -- in expected record-numbers -- flock to the polls today, I introduce the first installment of my one-part series on how to improve the American electoral process.

A few precursors: First, the voting process should be easy. It should not be a burden to actually vote. Second, voting should be accessible. It shouldn't matter where you live, it should be just as easy for you or for someone across town to vote. Third, you shouldn't feel hassled. Either because of the limited time before or after work, or because of fears of voter intimidation.

With that, I offer some simple suggestions that we could apply on a national scale, not just state-by-state:

* Mail-in voting: other states do this and they have record turnouts. And it solves all of the above three precursors.

* More polling places: we simply need to increase the bandwidth. Long lines are a great sign of voter enthusiasm, but it doesn't have to be that way.

* Change the date of the election: Many other civilized nations operate their elections over the span of a Saturday and Sunday. Or make it Tuesday/Wednesday for Americans. More time to vote encourages higher turnout.

* Make Election Day a national holiday: Perhaps the simplest solution of all is to make it a holiday. People will have much less to worry about and the reasons for not voting are almost eliminated.

If voting is so important that people fight wars to protect it, the least we can do is make sure everyone has an easy, fair, and simple means to vote.

Vote

Today, exercise your right to vote.

Why? Because if you don't, you're letting others speak for you.

With Apologies to Albert

I was reading some blogs, saw the picture on the right, and it hit me. 2 minutes in a photo editor and there you go.

I'd be surprised if the association hadn't already been made before.

Spreading the Wealth

The Republicans are up to their usual tactics again. They're calling Obama "Barack the wealth spreader" yet they are the ones misrepresenting and distorting Obama's platform and speeches. And they're selling most Americans a lie, and it's that lie I want to focus on here.

Here's the dirty truth: most Americans don't -- and never will -- fall into the category where your "wealth" will be spread around. They talk to all of us "working class" people in the "pro-America" parts of the country and strike fear into our hearts that our "wealth" is going to be taken away. But that's simply not true. Obama's tax plan calls for the status quo or in many cases, tax reductions, on the bottom 95% of tax payers. The only increases will be for that top 5%, those earning $250k/year or more. They have wealth, yes. And some additional amount of their wealth would be "spread" (a.k.a taxed). But the important thing is the lie the Republicans are selling everyone on. It's statistically impossible for most of us working-class "Joes" to be in the situation where we'd be taxed more. They're trying to convince us that we have more than we do!

The truth is that while a very, very small portion of America will have tax increases under Obama, the vast majority of us (including nearly everyone reading this post) will not see a change in our taxes, and in many cases, we'll be taxed less.

If you distort something long enough, eventually people will believe you. Most people's view of politics is on perceived reality, not actuality. And that's the only thing the Republicans have going for them.

You know the guy who goes into the voting booth and makes his decision based on stump speeches, campaign ads, and partisan blogs? Don't be that guy...

I Tweet With Twitter

I use Twitter to follow others as well as make my own "semi-regular" thoughts. It's a little quicker to post there via a Firefox extension, so I update there a little more regularly.

Check it out/add to your RSS reader if you're into that sort of thing.

http://twitter.com/whereisderek

The Way to a Woman's Heart

Saw this as part of a woot.com sale. They usually come up with clever ways to describe what they're selling, but this one is pretty good...

The HP Pavilion s3401f Slimline Dual Core 2.6 GHz Desktop PC:
the Athlon 64 X2 (B) 5000+ 2.6 GHz (65W) base processor says “I like to move fast”, but the 360gb 7200 RPM SATA hard drive says “I’ll give you your space.” 6 USB ports suggest that you’re open-minded. And rare indeed is the woman who can resist a man bearing integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface with Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g. Everybody hates Windows Vista, so you’ll have a shared interest to talk about during those awkward moments. It’s true what they say: the way to a woman’s heart is through her HP Pavilion s3401f Slimline Dual Core 2.6 GHz Desktop PC.

Dichotomy

Not everything is black and white. For instance, knowing someone, who committed terrorist acts when you were only eight years old, does not make you a terrorist. Just like attending a secessionist church in Alaska and sitting through the preachings of antisemitism and hating America does not make you a secessionist.

Things aren't that black and white.

True Stories

“Yesterday’s luxuries become today’s necessities.”

Sounds like a quote right out of True Stories. But, it wasn't from that movie. I just happened to read it on a multi-purpose blog.