Noteworthy on the Web- The Register: AWS CISO needs permission to visit his data centresHe doesn't mind and you shouldn't either because they're not that interesting Amazon Web Services' General Manager and Chief Information Security Officer Stephen E. Schmidt is not allowed to make unannounced visits to the company's data centres.… […]The Register
- Boing Boing: Global subway systems converge on common topologiesA paywalled paper in the Royal Society's journal Interfaceargues that the world's underground rail systems are all converging on an "ideal" form. The paper, "A long-time limit for world subway networks," shows that subway systems grow "organically," in response to the needs expressed by the cities above them over... […]Cory Doctorow
- Discardia: Small shifts to make a big difference in your relationship to your email inboxOne of my coaching clients faced a problem a lot of us deal with: I keep struggling to pull the important emails out of a pile and follow up in a reasonable amount of time with the people I have not heard back from yet. At the moment, I'm able... […]Dinah
- Eater SF: Fartine Bakery: Fartine is not the latest offshoot...Fartine is not the latest offshoot of the Mission's iconic Tartine Bakery. It is actually the subject of a fake ad made by someone who had the genius idea to merge the word "fart" with the word "Tartine," and it's shockingly flown right under the high security radar on... […]Carolyn Alburger
- StorageReview.com: Hitachi G-RAID With Thunderbolt Review (8TB)Hitachi's G-Technology line of external hard drives has long been a favorite for creative professionals and others who generally need some combination of reliability, performance, capacity and redundancy. While Hitachi has several products in the G-Tech line that specialize in one or more of those qualities, their latest effort is... […]Kevin OBrien
- Bruce Momjian: Postgres Blog: Template1 Me!You might have heard of the template1 database before, or seen it in the output of pg_dumpall: REVOKE ALL ON DATABASE template1 FROM PUBLIC; … Continue Reading » […]bruce@momjian.us (Bruce Momjian)
- Felix Salmon: Facebook: The smart money exitsThe Facebook IPO is now set to raise an absolutely astonishing amount of money — as much as $18 billion, if the greenshoe is exercised and the offering prices at the top of the indicated range. As a result, it’s certain to be the single largest technology IPO of... […]Felix Salmon
- Ars Technica: Android fragmentation: one developer encounters 3,997 devicesA map of all the thousands of separate device models that downloaded OpenSignalMaps in a six month period. OpenSignalMaps One developer can do business with nearly 4,000 distinct Android ROMs, according to data postedby the creators of OpenSignalMaps on Tuesday. While the Android platform provides a lot of flexibility... […]Casey Johnston
- Gizmodo: Steak Specialists Discover a New Cut of Beef [Food]Turns out that what happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas—and that's a good thing. A self-proclaimed Meat Geek has teamed up with Oklahoma State University to devise the first new style of steak in years. More » […]Andrew Tarantola
- The Brooks Review: ∞ The Best Diaper BagBack when my wife was registering for all of our “baby stuff” for showers she asked me which diaper bag we should get. I am pretty sure I said pick “whatever” because I was confident Target wouldn’t have what I wanted, and knew my wife wouldn’t put up with me... […]BenBrooks
- Marginal Revolution: The Myth of Chinese MeritocracyNo doubt you have heard how the leadership of China is meritocratic and composed of technocrats with PhDs. Minxin Pei suggests that there is less than meets the eye. …Contrary to the prevailing perception in the West (especially among business leaders), the current Chinese government is riddled with... […]Alex Tabarrok
- The Daily Viz: How Common Is Your Birthday?A friend posted an interesting data tableon my Facebook wall yesterday, which was my birthday. The data listed each day of the year with a ranking for how many babies were born on each date from 1973 to 1999. Some interesting trends are evident in the data. Apparently, people... […]Matt Stiles
- Boing Boing: Verizon refused to help police locate unconscious man unless they paid his phone billNancy Schaar at the Times Reporter: A 62-year-old Carrollton area man was found unconscious and unresponsive Thursday morning during an intense search overnight by Carroll County sheriff deputies, an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper and the patrol’s airplane. [Sheriff] Williams said he attempted to use the man’s cell phone... […]Rob Beschizza
- CNET News.com: Facebook said responsible for killing text messagingSmartphone users are spending more time hanging out on Facebook and thus left with less time to shoot texts to each other. [Read more] […]Charles Cooper
- TechOpsGuys.com: More 10GbaseT Coming..I wrote a couple of times about the return of 10GbaseT, a standard that tried to come out a few years ago but for various reasons didn't quite make it. I just noticed that two new 10GbaseT switching products were officially announced a few days ago at Interop Las Vegas... […]Nate
- Gizmodo: You Won't Believe This Colorful Glass Gem Corn Is Freaking Real Corn [Food]This is corn. No, it's not photoshopped. Yes, it's real. It's a corn variety called Glass Gem Corn and though it may look like jelly beans or beads, it's real, actual, edible corn. What in the world? More » […]Casey Chan
- Cool Tools: FreesoundThere are sound effects libraries that cost more than a small car, and they're probably worth it to certain kinds of users — like movie studios or audio production houses — but not to me. In search of interesting, appropriately licensed sounds for personal amusement, some google searching led me... […]Cool Tools
- David Lebovitz: Restaurant Alain DucasseUncharacteristically, I’ll spare you the specifics, but I need to catch up on about 147 hours of sleep. And while we’re at it, I could use a hug. And since the former isn’t necessarily easy to come by here, as is the latter, I was embrassé by dinner at Alain... […]David
- Ars Technica: USPS won't ship tablets and smartphones internationallyThe United Sates Postal Service is banning the international shipment of all devices that contain lithium ion batteries starting May 16, it announced in a press release. This includes even small-order batteries in devices like smartphones and tablets, meaning that if you wanted to pick up an iPad or ... […]Casey Johnston
- Mac Performance Guide: Unhide Your Library FolderMac OS X 10.7 Lion hides the Library folder which is found in your home directory. this can be a headache, here’s how to unhide your Library folder on Mac OS X. Read more […]diglloyd, Inc.
- The Register: AWS CISO needs permission to visit his data centres
Category Archives: Economics
What is heard, and what is not heard
French economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) wrote a pamphlet titled Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas (What is Seen and What is Not Seen) where he demolishes the make-work fallacy in economics. When Jacques Bonhomme’s child breaks his … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Soapbox
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Why do voters put up with bad politicians?
As a foreigner living in San Francisco for the last ten years, I never cease to be baffled by US voters’ tendency to vote for candidates who are clearly class warriors on the side of the rich and other influential … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Soapbox
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Why I will never buy a Kindle
One of my bosses got a Kindle 2 a few months ago, and was wondering how an avowed gadget lover such as myself did not have one already. I am perfectly comfortable reading books in electronic form on the small … Continue reading
Posted in Book reviews, Economics, Soapbox, Stuff
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City government waste in San Francisco
A 33% hike in Muni fares was announced today. This will hit the poorest people in the city first, and to add insult to injury, this is accompanied with cuts in service. San Francisco has a budget of over $6B, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, San Francisco, Soapbox
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Real-world organizational change
The economic crisis headlines are rife with CEOs and other executives behaving in ways contrary to the interests of shareholders. Business schools teach agency theory, an economic discipline that aims to solve the problem where an agent of principals (e.g. … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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The Tropicana redesign: marketing genius?
One of the great things about living in the United States is the ubiquity and affordability of high-quality orange juice. A few weeks ago, while going through the aisles at Target to buy a carton of Tropicana, I couldn’t find … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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Half the world supply of lithium lies in Bolivia
An interesting factoid. The Herald Tribune has a discussion of the geopolitics and economics involved.
Posted in Economics
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The tail wagging the dog redux
I don’t understand why the media make such a big fuss about computer companies like Apple, Dell, Gateway or now Cisco entering the consumer electronics business. Consumer electronics is a puny industry compared to IT. Just compare the market cap … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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Vignettes from India
I have been in Bombay for a week now. Traffic snarl-ups are a reality of life here, and enterprising hawkers flog magazines to passengers caught in traffic jams. According to my wife, one of the publications they sell is “ee-keya” … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Soapbox
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The benefits of standardization
In France, nuclear power plants follow a standardized design. The end result is that France gets more than 70% of its electricity from nuclear, reducing its dependence on oil or natural gas from the unsavory regimes in Russia or Algeria, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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