The Oil Spill War.

The oil spill is a major threat to the United States. It is correct for the federal government to act to act to mitigate this threat to us all. It is important for Obama to remain clear on this objective. BP has unwittingly triggered an attack on US soil, and they can and should help with defense, but it's our collective interest at stake, and we must take the lead.

This is a battle with three objectives:

1. Stop the flow.
2. Cleanup the mess.
3. Don't get distracted.

Stop the flow. Cap it, divert it or plug it. And don't stop trying until you succeed. One solution would be to ask every oil company in the world to come and drill into the field and drain it as quickly as possible. Make this a condition of ever doing business in the US again. Oh, and make sure that your blowout preventers are working.

Cleanup the mess. Use booms and sponges to keep floating crude away from shore. Figure out a way to sieve dispersed oil from seawater (fund a research project). Enlist locals help cleaning the coast.

Don't get distracted. By the blame game. By flow calculations. By political calculation. By philosophical positions. By questions of prevention. By principles. By critics. This is by far the most important objective, because without it all other objectives will not be met.

9 ways to write native iPhone apps with JavaScript

John Resig writes about iPhone JavaScript development back in November 2008. Here are the projects he mentions. (status as of June 2010 in brackets):

1. JiggyApp requires a jailbroken iPhone [offline]
2. JSCocoa "full bridge" for doing full bore Cocoa programming in JavaScript. My take: kind of like Swig but instead of Java/C it's JavaScript/Obj-C. Written by Patrick Geiller. [online. moderately active]
3. PhoneGap adds some native functionality (accel, gps, but no magnetometer) to an app . Also has great documentation - a free O'Reilly book "iPhone Apps" (which talks about cached webapps, too). Targets Android and Blackberry, too. [online. active]
4. WebTouch is basically a "blank" iPhone app with a single WebKit instance. John likes this one the best. Code. Author. Blog. [online. inactive]

From the comments:

1. Capuccino/Objective-J
2. Use "Transfer and View" apps like Dropbox or Files - see this blog post.
3. QuickConnect - an Xcode template. Code and blog. Development started 4 years ago?! [online. active.]
4. MotherApp - generates an Objective C application from JavaScript (presumably). [online. active. commercial]
5. Big5 is an app store app that somehow lets you tap into native functionality. Now open source at github. The readme points users to phonegap.

Not really sure what the state of the field is today, but PhoneGaps documentation (courtesy O'Reilly) is pretty huge.Summary: PhoneGap is the winner. But I really like the transfer and view concept, and JSCocoa for doing desktop development.

The Otter Style JavaScript Convention

Make yourself happy and avoid the Nexus One

In the end, there are two reasons I cannot recommend this phone:

1. The display is unreadable in sunlight. If you like the outdoors, like I do, this is a deal breaker. (If you're a vampire, read #2)
   
2. The buttons along the bottom of the Nexus One do not work. Or rather, do not work all the time, which is actually worse from a usability standpoint.

Regarding the first point, it is astounding to me that anyone would sell an electronic device that completely fails in sunlight. The sun remains the world's most important light source, and to make something that doesn't work in the sun is outrageously stupid. Only those who never leave a building should consider this phone, and that includes using it in your car. And I don't like to disrespect the sun on general principle.

(I can't help but wonder what this implies about the Google culture and possible vitamin D deficiencies there.)

As for the second point, well, the buttons gotta work. Every time you hit a button and it doesn't work, your expectations are blown, and you cause feelings of fear and anxiety in the user. They are small feelings. But they add up. Eventually, the user is all but flinching before touching a key. They look for ways to avoid touching the offending keys. This is usability 101. But you have to stab, cajole, pray, and otherwise beg the shitty Nexus One buttons to register a tap.Absolutely unacceptable. Apple has shown how to do great touch UI with an absolute bare minimum of buttons. The back|menu|home|search buttons on the Nexus One are worse than useless: they actually eroded myexperience to the point where I just don't want to use the phone anymore.

And since point 1 rules out all users except vampires, that means point 2 is going to mean Google has to deal with a lot of pissed off vampires. Maybe someone can get Stephanie Meyer to chronicle the inevitable vampire assault on Mountain View. In the meantime, I'm selling my Google stock.

I'm sorely tempted to eat the $45 restocking fee and return the thing, but I need an Android device for a business project (which doesn't rely on the display, luckily). So I'm gonna keep it, but I'm not gonna like it.

(For the record, there are three good things about the Nexus One: Google Voice, Live wallpaper, and strong syncing tools. And, to be honest, when you turn the brightness all the way up the indoor display is quite fetching.)

Imponderables in the geekosphere

What happens when you combine this law with this gadget?

The Joy of Shopvac

Yesterday I bought a small ShopVac from Sears [correction: it's a Craftsman brand. But like Kleenex, the brand name is also used as the generic]. It's a 2 gallon, 1.5 hp model that cost me $25 + tax. And it's awesome. It is surprisingly powerful.

Why? Because it solved a hard problem: cleaning my bilge. And it will solve other problems, like cleaning my cushions and the deck. And I can use it to inflate the Avon. And it's small enough to put anywhere.

Fantastic.

A practical guide to "spreading the love"

Lots of people talk about "spreading the love", but what do they mean and how do you do it?

Online, the first step to spreading the love is to filter. You read positive items, items that are useful to others, and ignore everything else. The actual love still needs to be spread, so send the link in one of myriad ways. Make them feel special, and that you're thinking of them. The love has been spread! Good job!

If this sounds good to you, read on. Realize that we read things for all sorts of reasons. To stay informed, to grumble, to reinforce our preconceived notions of how the world works, to waste time, to learn about a topic. This becomes clear when you observe yourself as you read: some items create feelings of hope, delight, or wonder; others create dread, fear, or pain.

Offline, "spreading the love" can take the form of an extra generous tip, a compliment, or a smile.

One of the most interesting things about it is that, if you are in a good mood and resolve to "spread the love" you will find a practical way to do it, and believe me, it will make a difference.

There is limited love that one can spread on a computer: recognize this limit when you reach it and close the thing down!

The cutest thing I've ever seen in my life

Courtesy CuteOverload.com

A great album - Kate Bush: Hounds of Love

The Hounds of Love, Kate Bush's 1985 tour de force, has been a favorite album of mine for many years. It is still as good today as it was in 1994 or so when I first heard it. The second side (titled "The Ninth Wave") is by far my favorite part of the album, and contains two of my most played tracks: The Morning Fog and Watching you Without Me.

Kate is known as a meticulous producer, and it shows. Every second of this album is impeccably produced, and the sound quality is amazing. Normally I would scoff at good production as being rather pointless - the music is what matters, after all. But Kate's music is so intricate that it requires this kind of careful treatment to be heard. Indeed, I can imagine that Bjørk would really benefit from production like this. (Actually, so would Sigur Rós, where bad production actually ruined Ágætis byrjun for me after I started catching all the artifacts on relistens.)

Do yourself a favor and buy this album today. It's amazing.

How to *really* rock the vote on Memorial Day

It's an absolutely picture perfect Southern California memorial day: sunny, bright, and warm. Unusually, we don't even have any smog. Which is a great time to get some clarity about a political change that I support: military service as a condition of the vote.

This is a fairly radical position, and it's not seriously discussed on the national stage. So let me explain. First of all, it's not that radical. Compulsory military service, or national service, is common throughout the world: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey all do it. Israel is particularly commendible for conscripting women as well as men.

Military service does two things that are useful for voters: first, it organizes them in the largest single organizational structure our nation has. This teaches people to work coherently in large numbers, which is a good basis for acting coherently when it comes time to national votes. Second, and more importantly, our service men are putting their life on the line to achieve this countries geopolitical goals. That's a more important and more meaningful contribution than tax dollars, and should be rewarded with something more meaningful, like the vote. The most i

It is hard to imagine veterans putting up with the kind of vitriolic non discourse that dominates today's landscape. Veterans know that talk is cheap, it's easier to be a critic than to act, and that actions mean something, even if you get it wrong. They understand that honor isn't an abstract, useless thing, that without honor organizations fall apart. The vitriol will die off because the demand will disappear.

This is a long term play. It will take at least a generation for the effects to fully be felt. But it's an experiment that's worth making.

A hearty salute to all our soldiers out there, domestic and abroad. Kick some ass!

Peace.

When hot girls sing.

When you like someone you put up with a lot. If your girl likes to sing, and she's bad at it, you let the girl sing anyway. No harm. But for some reason, Barnes & Nobles believes that Him & Her needs to be played while I shop. This is odd because I'm pretty sure is dating Zoey Daschenal (lead singer of Him & Her) neither Barnes nor Noble, or the awkward young man in the music section, so it's not clear why they are doing this.

(Perhaps to avoid having to play Vampire Weekend? That I understand.)

Of Sailboats and Pianos

Sailboats are nice because they are fun to sail. It's nice to own one because you have control - if you want to change something, you can.

My boat is a 1972 35' Ericson. And I just had a mechanic tell me that I shouldn't bother fixing it (the engine is seized). Why? Because the engine, fiberglass and gelcoat things I want to fix are 'tradesman jobs' and that I shouldn't bother.

This kind of "can't do" attitude get's me down. It's un-American. Economies of scale are, at some level, great - they are an incredible way to inject large amounts negentropy into the world. Think about how cheap it is to buy a piano! But they also seem to set expectations way too high. It's like, "if it can't be factory fresh, I don't want to bother!"

Tuning a piano correctly is beyond most laymen. But it only needs to be done once in a while, and is relatively cheap. What if we kept pianos submerged in salt-water? Then it might not be worth it to own pianos at all!  Factories that produce big, dead things aren't really doing us much good: maybe inexpensive durable goods are a poison pill. Factories simultaneously raise our expectations of our stuff, and reduce our ability to understand our stuff.

So, I have to consider the question seriously: is it even worth it to own a boat? Is the mechanic's assertion correct, that a boat is something you spend $150,000 on, put it in the water for 10 or 20 years and then throw it away?

No. I don't really buy this can't do attitude. I think it's possible to maintain my boat. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be relatively safe and get me in and out of the slip. The gelcoat and fiberglass needs to be watertight and functional, not perfect. Basically, I'm content to let the super-high standards set at the factory go by the wayside and gain some skills maintaining and repairing my own stuff.

The way out is simple: ditch that downer mechanic, and figure out another way. And so I have: I'm going to pull out the old Universal Atomic 4 engine and put a electrical engine in. I'm very excited about this. It's really a perfect solution. Electric motors are light (about 30lbs for the motor itself) and efficient. It even does regenerative power from the rotating prop when you're under sail - a very cool form of wind power. It's good for the environment. It's quiet and there are very few moving parts to maintain. Pop on some solar panels (Costco has a 60w deal for only $270 right now) and I'm set.

I can do it, and I will.

Goodbye Facebook, Hello Facetime

I finally deactivated my Facebook account. Been thinking about it since Facebook patented the "newsfeed".I feel good about it already. I really enjoy seeing what people are up to in the world, and reconnecting with old friends, but at some point Facebook became an oppressive force in my life, and now it's time to go. The recent privacy problems are just another reason to ditch the service.

A great deal of Facebook is actually recreated in the open with FriendFeed (friendfeed.com/javajosh), which creates a kind of open newsfeed which other FriendFeed users can comment on, like, etc. Recommended.

Here are some other ways to stay in touch:

1. Phone or Text (562) five four six-3882 (or 562 54 METTA).
   
2. Everything (friendfeed.com/javajosh). Most of my online activities go here, particularly the media I consume. It's better than a Facebook Newsfeed, actually.
3. Email (javajosh@gmail.com). Tried and true. Personally, I really dig email. Way better than Facebook Messaging: it's search-able, universal, and far more private, reliable, and flexible.
4. Chat (javajosh@gmail.com, Skype/javajosh). I'm not a big chatter, though. Would much rather just have a quick phone conversation.
   
5. Link sharing (delicious.com/javajosh, google.com/reader/shared/javajosh). Sharing links is an easy way for me to say, "Hey, this is neat!". Kind of takes the place of Twitter.
   
6. Blogging (javajosh.blogger.com). Replaces "Notes" in Facebook, but more general and flexible.
   
7. YouTube, GoodReads (goodreads.com/javajosh), last.fm (last.fm/user/ablation). Find out what videos I've watched, books I've read, and music I've listened to.
   
8. Flickr (flickr.com/jaakel). Photos I've taken. This account has languished recently, alas. It's time to change that. Or not. I may start using Picasa Web Albums (picasaweb.google.com/javajosh) instead (partly because I can't stand the URL I got with Flickr - thanks sis!) Actually, photos are one area where I think facebook does a better job, although I bet these other services will do a good job catching up.
9. Twitter: not for me.

I hope that, in the end, leaving Facebook will improve my connections with others. One things for certain, I look forward to reconnecting with my blog,
which has a far more spacious & open feel to it. Here, I feel free to write
what I like, rather than the pithy, tiny, and ultimately pointless
quips that the Facebook format seems to encourage and reward. Ah, a new, old day has dawned.

Keep in touch,
Josh

Career choice: vigilante!

I'm going to take off my liberal hat for a while and rant about something. I read stories about admitted scumbags getting life in jail, and it  ticks me off. What a waste. That visceral angry part of me demands true justice. Someone should have hunted him down long ago - but instead we have a civilized trial and spend $10m to keep him secure and alive for the rest of his life.

At least dump him in Iraq and let him defuse IEDs. With a pair of pliers and a smile.

Oh! To be a dark avenger stalking the evildoers of the night in righteous vengeance! To clean the streets of rapists and senseless drive-by shooters!

You know, like Batman.

The immune system of our society is ponderous, slow, and unfocused. The body of law that police are expected to enforce and the legal system is expected to prosecute is so complex that actual enforcement is not only impossible, but would be counter-productive if everything was perfectly enforced. Regarding minor criminal acts, we are not a nation of laws, but a nation of discretionary enforcement which is too often abused.

Far better than a lone vigilante would be a simplified body of law, something that can be enforced and prosecuted swiftly. Speed is essential because justice, like inspiration, is perishable.

Why require login to unsubscribe from spam?

I think most people create a lot of accounts in this Internet world. Most of these accounts are silly because there is no data of interest, and nothing to protect. Two such accounts, like those at Auctiva and JBoss.org, both spam you when you sign up for an account, and both require a log in and manipulation of email preferences. Of course, I don't remember these accounts, and, really, I don't want to go to that amount of trouble. Which means I hit the spam button in Gmail, which is easy, quick, but makes it possible, if not likely, that neither companies newsletters will make it even to legitimate customers. Which is something I know neither company wants.

Come on people. Make it easy to unsubscribe (like, a single click). It's a Good Idea.

A cure for motion sickness

I am quite pleased to report that my motion sickness is cured, and I hope that this cure can be applied to other cases. I'm fairly certain that there are many kinds of motion sickness, so let me describe mine and how I (inadvertently) treated it. If the treatment helps you, please let me know!

My motion sickness, first and foremost, prevented me from reading in a car, or any moving object. This could be a considerable problem, particularly when faced with navigating maps - the effort to concentrate on a map would cause nausea within two minutes or so, and take perhaps five to dissipate. I experienced this profoundly while on recent trip to New Zealand traveling in the back of a camper van.

Occasionally, my motion sickness would attack me while sailing - but usually not within many hours of being on the water. And usually I would vomit once or twice and then be fine. The one exception is one time when I had a touch of flu, and was sick within an hour of being on the water (and violently ill the entire 12 hour journey - which is a story for another time). Reading of any sort, or any concentrated activity, especially below decks, would cause a wave of nausea.

That's the extent of it: I have never been motion sick on a roller coaster, and never on a large plane, or on a large ship. (Well, I did feel a bit sick when the pilot of a small plane showed me some acrobatics, but that hardly counts!)

(Why not Dramamine? I found out early on that I despise Dramamine more than I despise being motion sick - Dramamine makes me feel sleepy without allowing me to go to sleep, keeping me in this incredibly uncomfortable in-between state that feels awful. I would only use it in exceptional circumstances, like that 12-hour torture sail mentioned above.)

Anyway, I've been living on a small sailboat for about 4 months now, and recently discovered that, somehow, my motion sickness has all but gone! I can read in the car! Heck, I could even write stuff in my laptop in the back of a taxi (which would normally be even more nausea inducing than reading)! I'm quite pleased about this and can't wait to test the limits of my newfound tolerance.

So that's it! Live on a boat for a while, and maybe that will help your motion sickness. If it does, I'd love to hear from you.

(My guess is that the constant motion while sleeping on a boat conditions the body to respond in a more normal way to small motions. I say "all but gone" because I can feel the discomfort begin while, for example, reading in the car. but it never gets past discomfort into full-blown nausea. It's like the waves are still breaking on the beach but they just aren't strong enough to get past the boardwalk).

Hope this helps!

Something wierd about the iPad

I'm a gadget guy: I love toys and electronics and shiny things that run on electricity in general. I often feel an unaccountable lust for objects I see on New Egg and in the Fry's ads in the back of the sports section. "$88 for 4G of RAM? Wow! I must have it!" I think, forgetting for the moment that I don't even own a desktop PC. The same thing happened when I saw the 30" Cinema display: it was simply gorgeous, and I had to have it, even though I didn't have a computer to drive it's insane resolution. And I felt the same way about the iPhone - and I actually bought it.

So, the weird thing about the iPad is that it inspires no such feelings of lust in me. It's weird because, by rights, it should inspire such feelings. It has all the traits: it's a neat toy and it's a solid metal block that has a computer inside of it. But there is no stirring in my brain's gadget-passion center.

(I've had this strange experience once before, with World of Warcraft. By rights, I should have been badly addicted to the game, but it was merely meh.)

I think the thing that gets me about the iPad is that I don't need it. I've never been in a situation where I thought to myself "Gosh, I wish I had a tablet right now." I own a tablet, actually, the IBM X10. It's really good for a very narrow range of tasks, mostly drawing and note-taking. The only feature of the iPad I have actually wanted is 10 hour battery life and the very light weight. Indeed, it would make an interesting "world traveler's device". Except, of course, netbooks are cheaper, more robust (clamshell protects screen), and have a built-in keyboard and useful ports (like USB and SD card slots). Indeed, with iPhone 4.0 including bluetooth keyboard support, the iPhone 3GS itself may be the best "world traveller's device" (especially if you buy downloadable maps). It's lighter than everything else and is a phone, and while it sucks for reading it's passable. And it's much better for watching movies than you'd expect.

Truth be told, my gadget-lusting brain is far more interested the Kindle and Nook. They have even better battery life, include lifetime 3G connectivity, and make reading digibooks relatively painless. I'm not real happy about page transitions, so maybe the next revision. I'm also very not excited about having to rebuy my physical books.

How I learned to stop worrying and love Apple's iThing developer restrictions

At first blush, Apple is confusing. On one hand, I like the polish of their products. Apple makes some of the very finest producty products - shiny, smooth metal objects that have computers in them. I love that. On the other hand, Apple is being very restrictive about what I make and, now, how I make it.

As a developer, I want to play with the insides of these metal objects. I want to break it apart, see how it works, and write code that runs on it. Part of the reason is that I see my software as a shiny metal object, and Apple promises to help me create that effect, both inside and out. In fact, not only does my app get to run on a shiny object, my app can be purchased through a shiny store. So the entire user experience is shiny! This is an opportunity that no other software platform gives me. It is absolutely unique.

It doesn't bother me that Apple is restricting it's developers on how they write their software, because the best mobile apps are ones written for bare metal. It's the only way to squeeze the most performance per watt from an app. For years, programmers have been decrying the fact that we just push around abstractions, and have lost the art of Deep Knowing, and rely on ever increasing PC specs to make up for sloppy coding practices. Well, guess what: now Apple is forcing you to know their devices inside and out before you write code for them. Everyone already knows you have to be a low-level programmer to write the shiniest possible apps, and Apple is simply forcing us to code The Right Way.

Of course, it's the uniqueness of Apple's product (not just the iThings but the entire shiny end-to-end user experience) which gives them the leverage to do it The Right Way. But since it's really just forcing us to do what we already know is right, why worry?

And also, of course, Apple gleefully realizes that as programmers learn the iThing environment they will be loath to abandon their hard-won skills and may even be tempted to write native apps for OSX.

Hamid Karzai declares war on the US; the US "fully supports" the move

Kabul, Afghanistan. The nation of Afghanistan is rejoicing today at their leader's decision to declare war on the US. Incensed by the occupation of his country by "foreign devils" Karzai has asked the US for an increase in troop levels, but the US has declined. "President Karzai already has 100,000 US troops under his command. It's not that we don't want to help him prosecute his war against us, but we're already stretched thin, and don't have the resources to spare," said secretary of state Hillary Clinton. "President Karzai is taking an incredibly brave and principled stand, and we wish we could give him more support."

US troops stationed in Afghanistan were circumspect. "I'm not real happy about fighting against other Americans, but hey, what the commander in chief says, goes. Besides, I'm kind of looking forward to a stand-up fight, for once," said Leuitenent Commander JP Whitmore, 3rd division.

Defense contractors have been quick to assure both sides of the impending battle of their unwavering, fair-minded support. "We pledge to show no favoritism to the US troops in Afghanistan or to the US troops which are preparing to attack them," said CEO David J. Lesar of Halliburton. To so do so, he said would be "unfair to the taxpayer as much as to the troops themselves." He did add that it would be convenient if both sides of the battle would use the same logistical pipeline. "If both sides rearm and refuel from the same depot, we could see unprecedented efficiency improvements," said Raytheon chief William H. Swanson. "Getting those supply lines in place is a major headache," he added, "and we would hate to duplicate effort unnecessarily." "This is an unprecedented opportunity to show how efficent war can get," echoed GE CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt. "It just doesn't get any better than this."

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen in a press conference this morning, "No matter what happens, we will prevail in this conflict." He continued, "They know our strengths, they know our weakness, they are highly trained and professional, just like us. We are fighting for basic human freedoms," looking confused for a moment he continued, "but of course we do not abandon our allies, especially when helping them to fight for freedom against an oppressive, imperialist occupation. Our support of Karzai is unwavering and he will be victorious with our unwavering help," pausing for a moment, "and we will also bring Karzai down without mercy," he concluded.

A capitalist defence of socialized medicine.

The American healthcare system is broken. My first-person experience is that it is merely broken (long wait times; exorbitant fees; healthcare professionals who are more concerned with billing data than symptoms). Poll data and 3rd party anecdotes suggest that it is severely broken (coverage is denied; rates increased beyond reason, arbitrarily). The twin problems facing healthcare are: 1) poor, expensive care and 2) unreliable insurance coverage.

I believe in capitalism and in the ability for markets to correct themselves. In this case, the capitalist response is (correctly) that I should be shopping for a better doctor and I should be shopping for a better health insurance provider. I have found that, in both cases these products are extremely complicated, the markets are completely opaque. Insurance shopping is left to the professionals (called agents or brokers). On the care side, actually shopping for a good doctor is largely left to word-of-mouth (there are no brokers). It is impossible for me to find good care at any price. It is impossible for me to shop for healthcare services based on price - I have found that the front desk will quote a price, and then later offer a cash discount. It is not practical to ask every provider for every procedure via the phone. It is impossible for me to predict what any insurance company will cover in advance. It seems like this is a problem too big for me to fix. Or rather, it's a problem that outstrips the utility of it's solution.

When lots of people have the same problem, and no individual seems able to fix it on their own (or rather it is cost prohibitive for each individual to solve the problem), it makes sense to cooperate and solve it together. The first thing you might do is look at other places and see how they solved the problem. Look at France, or Hawaii. In both cases people seem happy with their care; certainly I would appreciate the act of just getting healthcare without going through the rigamarole of providing billing information.

That said, I think the Hawaii system should be rolled out on a state-by-state basis. I don't want the federal government involved. I would like each state to take a good hard look at Hawaii and see if they can swing it. So thats it, a capitalist defense of socialized medicine.

Facebook, leaning toward evil.

Facebook has patented the news feed. The opportunity for mayhem is incredible.

This patent is just wrong. It would be like a newspaper patenting narrow columns. It's not right. They already have a strangle-hold on my data. This is the last straw. I'm leaving Facebook.

Change always hurts

It's funny how people vote for politicians advocating "Change" and then when it comes to actually changing, people balk. This is for a good reason: all change hurts somebody.

Take health care reform. That's a big change, and it will surely hurt insurance companies. I am not being flippant: insurance companies have investors who want to make a profit, and those investors could very well be me or you thanks to the 401(k) investment. Health care reform, in it's current incarnation, will also cost more money, and increasing the size of the government, hurting the taxpayer's wallet. The hope is that such a change will improve people's lives, overall.

I voted for Obama, but I have to admit his healthcare reform initiative took me by unhappy surprise. With all the crap going on the world, and with the US already bleeding money thanks to two thankless wars, why now? Why not wait until the wars are over, we stop bleeding money, and can make these changes without making the government any larger than it already is?

I want smaller government, not larger. I think there are very few Americans of any party that want a larger government. This is not a matter of principle, it's a matter of practicality: the federal government already appears to be a hulking, wasteful lumbering thing. Rewarding the government for a job poorly done is no way to spend resources. If the government were more effective, doing only those things which require a fierce concentration of power and resources, then I would be more open to giving it more money.

Change is always painful. We just have to be smart in judging whether some pain now will yield benefits in the future. The interesting thing is that, if you take virtually *any* historical decision, even ones that we now perceive as good, or even great, you will find enormous opposition. The creation of central park was going to bankrupt New York. Desegregation was going to destroy America. Entering world war 2 was going to bankrupt us and needlessly entangle us in world affairs. Landing on the moon was going to be a wasteful misuse of government resources, and probably kill the astronauts. Revolt against Britian was needless, and going to end in utter defeat.

Unintended Consdequences of Lightwieght Activism

About a year ago I took a stand against membership cards. I found out today that my small act of rebellion changed the policies of a major corporation, derailed one of it's marketing campaigns, and got someone fired.

The relatively recent rash of "membership cards" at virtually every retail store was troubling to me. On a superficial level, I was annoyed at having to carry all of these cards just to get the ordinary price. It was clear to me that, rather than enabling "discounts" these cards actually just warded off penalties - non-carriers are penalized for not having one, or not presenting it. On a deeper level, I knew the true purpose of these cards and it bothered me: they give the store a valuable database not only of personal contact details, but also behavior data. You are what you buy, and these companies can learn a lot about you from your spending habits. While the use of this information would normally be innocuous, it frightens me. At no time in history were such complete records possible to keep on a such a wide scale. It's not clear how they can be misused.

One day, while at the local Ralph's, it occurred to me that I could solve both concerns at once. I could register a card with a fake name and address, an easy-to-remember phone number (562 500 5000), and then encourage others to use that phone number as well. This was an act of lightweight activism. And today I found that it was far more successful than I hoped. Indeed, it got someone fired.

According to Mary, my checkout clerk today, around 30 people at the one store were using the number. It was directly because of this, according to her, that they discontinued the free gas initiative. And finally, a checkout clerk was fired for suggesting that a customer who had forgotten their card use the number. She said all of this with a quivering lip, and was obviously very angry with me. "So YOU are the one who registered that number!" she began accusingly.

(Of all the accusations I found the "free gas was discontinued because of you" the most interesting. I put a fake name, "Guy Faux" and a fake address "123 Main St. Seal Beach" so I never received anything from Ralphs. I suppose if they just printed unnamed vouchers some lucky person at or near that address was getting a lot of free gas. I expected the mail to get returned to sender.)

I too am angry that someone got fired over this, but for very different reasons. The clerk got fired for helping a customer. That's just wrong. I can totally understand that the company does not want it's employees systematically undermining any system, no matter how ill-concieved. But to fire someone over this? Why isn't Mary angry with management? They are the ones who did the firing! Heck, I never told any of the clerks to share the number. It just sort of caught on.

An act of rebellion, someone lost their job, many people protected their privacy for a short time, a random person got free gas. All of this because I picked a fake number and encouraged a few people to use it. Wow. What a strange world we live in.

For the record, I advocate doing away with these ridiculous cards entirely. Places like Trader Joe's need to be commended for not imposing on their customers like this. If you agree you can act by doing something like what I did, but perhaps on a smaller scale. Figuring out what the public needs and wants should be up to the "feel" of the store manager, not the output of an OLAP data center that then dispatches impersonal orders around the globe.