Blagophilia

Manufacturing overseas

larry — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:00:47 +0000

The NYTimes has an interesting article titled “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work” using Apple as a case study regarding China, the US, and manufacturing. It really illustrates the complexity of manufacturing regarding the US and other countries. The big takeaway, for me, is that it is not simply about wage costs when various companies move to China or overseas for manufacturing. They talk about supply chains, ramp up capability, time to market. But that is not what stuck out the most for me.

Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. “They’re good jobs, but the country doesn’t have enough to feed the demand,” Mr. Schmidt said.

I’ve heard talk about technical schools here and there over the years and the need for them. And it makes realize even more how the US economy, how the employment structure has changed. We have the service industry, some infrastructure industries, and then we have the “professional” class of workers. If the US has mostly moved beyond a manufacturing based economy what have we become? I am not smart enough, nor know enough about economics to say but it does give one food for thought. Can we sustain what we have become and will the middle class survive it?

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Using Evernote

larry — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:59:31 +0000

Managing all the information in my life is a constant battle. From remembering little tidbits at work, to recalling the model of a water filter. I’ve found as I get older I have more and more things to keep track of. So, I’ve always been on the lookout for programs which can help me do so. Evernote is a program/service that I’ve used for a number of years. But it is only recently that I’ve begun to use it to it’s full potential. It’s an example of how technology can help humans manage things.

Evernote has two major things going for it that allow it to live within almost any workflow. The first being device independence. You can use it on your desktop, android/ios device, or the web. That combined with the interaction with other applications via its API really makes it shine.

The trick for me to use it more and more has been the tagging. Notebooks are important, but since it is basically a data repository, search is much more important. So proper tagging is required in order to use it. Without tagged entries it becomes nearly impossible to track what you put in it. This also means that I’ve ended up putting all sorts of random, and not so random, data into it. I have technical data, project stuff, travel information, recipes, model numbers for some house stuff. I’ve found that by making it a default to send it stuff I know I may want to keep that it becomes more valuable. It also has saved me quite a few times by having data I could not find elsewhere. It also has me wondering though, how others use Evernote or similar programs.

RIP Steve Jobs

larry — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:22:30 +0000

WE are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

Giving a little encouragement goes a long way

larry — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:47:16 +0000

More than anything this post shows how opportunity and education can transform, and free, someone’s life from what it was and what they think it will always be. I’ve been reading Sierra’s posts for some time now and her latest shows how one person simply believing that you could, that you are capable can do so much. So maybe we all should do that more often. Show that we trust someone in what they can do and what they can be if they wish.

“There’s more than one way to write,” Bill answered. “You could go to grad school. You could become a professor.” My eyes widened. I could become a professor? The borders of my world seemed to explode, running out in all directions like shockwaves from an earthquake. I could go to grad school? I felt like I’d just been told that I could go to the moon. I recalled the sign I had seen the previous year: “From Homeless to Harvard.” I could be that girl who overcame, who rejected the life laid out before her and forged a new one. I could make something of myself. Bill thought I could be that girl.

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There be Dragons

larry — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:33:54 +0000

Someone just reminded me of this quote. It’s very true in some ways.

Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. – GK Chesterton

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Steve Jobs Resigns

larry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:39:47 +0000

Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple Inc. on Wednesday. He will still be the Chairman of the Board though. You can read his letter here.

I am not going to speculate about why though. The media has done an overly thorough job of discussing his health issues of the last few years. He simply stated he cannot perform those duties anymore. Not an easy thing to decide I am sure.

One thing I know is that the reports of Apples demise are being greatly exaggerated. The expected stock dip has occurred as well as the morbidly obituary-like articles about this change. It seems to me that Jobs’ goals regarding Apple were never as simple as building some cool gadgets, some nifty toys for us all to use. To quote John Gruber:

Jobs’ greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It’s Apple itself.

It’s true. Apple is more than Steve but it also is, in essence, Steve. This is why I think Apple will continue to do what it has done. It will be different but it will still be Apple.

XKCD on the CIA Website Hack

larry — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:24:47 +0000

This is so true. Courtsey of XKCD.

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Musica Universalis

larry — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:23:42 +0000

Dr. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy posted a video by Alex Parker, an astronomy PhD student, at the University of Victoria in Canada. The video entitles Supernovae Sonata is an attempt to put music to the universe. This concept is not new and greatly appeals to the romantic in me. The idea that there is a music to existence is appealing. It does give a sort of meaning to things, and as a human I often look for meaning in my life, and in the universe. The idea of the “Music of the Spheres”, or Musica Universalis is an old one dating back, in some form, to Ptolemy.

Supernova Sonata from Alex Parker on Vimeo.

I find the video a pretty cool way of visualizing, and audiolizing (new word?), aspects of the universe.

It’s pretty interesting how things seem to happen in life though. I just heard Jennifer Oullette mention the concept in a talk at TAM9. She included the Saturn clip from Cassini as an example. I find that clip slightly disturbing at times, but also compelling with it’s own beauty. It is the sound of the universe, in this case the dance of the rings of Saturn as they circle the planet.

I’ll end on a lighter note with this Doctor Who clip.

Uniformity, Conformity, Style and the UI

Off to TAM

larry — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:05:39 +0000

Shortly I’ll be heading off to Las Vegas to attend TAM 9. TAM - The Amazing Meeting is an interesting meeting of skeptics and scientists to discuss all sorts of topics. There will be a nice mix of speakers to, some controversial and some minor celebrities. I’ll try and post while I am there. I intend to take many pictures too!

If anyone else is going drop me a line! I look forward for the chance to meet some people like PZ Meyers, Phil Plait, Jen McCreight, Bill Nye, and a whole lot more people.

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What is Age on the Internet?

larry — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:29:49 +0000

I was linked to this post via Making Light regarding the affects of COPPA on children who use the internet extensively. And I think on this day, July 4th, it is very relevant. Children in the USA occupy an interesting space regarding how they are treated across the board. They are used by corporations, parents, politicans, and the legal system for all sorts of purposes – most of them selfish. If you look at the Internet though you can see the effect magnified to a large degree. Unfortunately the main view on the internet is driven by fear and exploitation of children, not by those evil predators lurking on every website, but by corporations and politicians looks for an angle. COPPA represents this. I won’t even call it well meaning because it is just stupid in its purpose and execution.

What is COPPA? COPPA is the Children’s Online Protection and Privacy Act. It was passed in October of 1998 with the goal of protection children under the age of 13. The FTC is who enforces it. Now there is one obvious and glaring flaw here. How the hell can you truly verify age on the internet? Unless you require a copy of ID to be sent directly there is no actual way without doing some sort of background check. Now who is going to background check for a forum login? For access to a photo sharing site? No one, because it is expensive, and frankly idiotic to require it.

So what you have is a law that will never be realistically followed, that will only penalize the people who are honest, and will setup yet another arbitrary requirement for access. Now there are those who say “well can’t the parents give consent”? Of course they can but the hoops to obtain it are prohibitive for most sites. Here is a list of methods that make it ok. Not this must be reobtained if the terms of the site change as well. This is the COPPA compliance page.

getting a signed form from the parent via postal mail or facsimile;
accepting and verifying a credit card number in connection with a transaction;
taking calls from parents, through a toll-free telephone number staffed by trained personnel;
email accompanied by digital signature;

So unless it is a for pay site the costs incurred include processing paperwork, or a possible toll-free line. The final method requires training on the parents end. Unfortunately digital signing of an email is not yet mainstream, nor is it 100% full proof.

What is the net effect of this policy? Mostly it sets up an arbitrary system with a laughable practice of adding a checkbox to a page saying “I am over 13″. For children though it sends a different message. What it really does is tell them they have to lie about their age if they want to participate. The way the whole thing is setup makes it easier to lie than to tell the truth. It makes it so parents will go along with the lie in many cases as well. So it sends a second message that it is ok to lie when the requirements are stupid or ill thought out. The correct response would be to instead change the requirements to be more realistic. There is a final thing here, but that is a whole other topic. How fear is used to manipulate people on the internet to create this sort of thing “for the children”.