I’ve had a ton of stuff in my oft-crowded favorites folder, but now it is all in the blogroll, where it should be. Speaking of which: old post, new comment, from the man himself.
A Little Curly
I’ve finally got it figured out. Put whatever text, html, whatever you want into this and if it breaks click the button. It works with things like the '70s (closing), 5'9" (prime marks), ``this stuff'', multi-paragraph quotes, and pretty much every other situation I could think of. It also doesn’t touch a thing in HTML tags or between code, kbd, or pre tags.
Just a Little Static
I’ve implemented a very crude caching system on the front page only. Due to increased traffic and my lack of time for a better solution at the moment, the front page will be updated every two minutes. All the other pages will remain as dynamic and random as always. If you don’t see your comment right away don’t worry, it’s there it just isn’t displaying just yet. Update: Nixed it, wasn’t worth it. I’ll just wait ’til Smarty is in the system.
Blatant Rip
Well they say imitation is the highest form of flattery, so why do I feel so violated?
Gallery: 2-23-2003
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Retiring Microsoft Executive
A retiring Microsoft executive said some pretty interesting things in his farewell letter. It sounds like not everyone is oblivious in the Evil Empire.
“Microsoft must survive and prosper by learning from the open-source software movement and by borrowing from and improving its techniques. Open-source software is as large and powerful a wave as the Internet was, and is rapidly accreting into a legitimate alternative to Windows. It can and should be harnessed.” Simply fighting open source through “litigation and proprietary protocols” is a strategy for failure, Stutz said.
“Microsoft is in agreement with much of the position that David has of the future. But Microsoft believes that breakthroughs will come mostly through commercial software companies, like Microsoft,” a company spokeswoman said.
I’m glad she said “like Microsoft” to clear things up, for a moment there I thought she might be talking about Oracle, Sun, or IBM.
Two Down
If you’re interested in a new read, Eli has a brand-spanking new blog, Oxy-Moron. We just got it set up yesterday so it’s still getting started, but I’m excited to see what he’s going to write about.
Why Houston?
It started this morning while on my way to meet with Eli (whose website is almost ready) there were about 30 people on horses at the place where I like to eat breakfast. I thought to myself, “Only in Houston.”
Fast forward to this afternoon as I’m trying to take a “shortcut” on Memorial, but instead I get stuck behind a trail ride going who knows where at 5 miles per hour. Whose bright idea was that?! Let’s put someone on a busy street in rush hour and see how much we can mess things up. Since when were horses even allowed on streets and such? Isn’t traffic bad enough? Bah. This is why people think in Houston we ride horses to school and have cattle. (I’m not making that up.)
One Down
And so it begins. Look for another one tomorrow.
Gallery: 2-21-2003
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Gallery: 2-20-2003
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It’s Only Right
Friends don’t let friends do Livejournal. If you or anyone you know wants help setting up a blog, let me know. I’m trying to help as many people I know as possible get online and blogging. It’s the Right Thing to Do. Plus I have this big ’ol dedicated server running at less than 10% capacity.
House of Pies Quest
Last night Josh and I started our mission to try every single item on the House of Pies menu. Two down, a lot to go. It just occured to me that some sort of mini-review of each item might be worthwhile, a thought that occured to me as I’m about halfway through the menu at Get Wired.
Battle of the Hayeks
Selma vs. Friedrich, you can all guess who’d I choose. Hat tip: Lazy Pundit.
Curly Quotes Almost There
I was trying to use preg_match_all when I should have been using preg_split, but now that I’ve wrapped my mind around that problem the rest should be easy. I turn in my last paper today, so I should be able to finally have some real time to work on it.
Reason for War
While browsing around I stumbled on this post which I think makes some very interesting points in terms of the implications for the dollar. Check it out and my response is below. If it wasn’t on LiveJournal I would trackback, but lacking that:
That’s very thorough. I think you have some excellent points, but I think you dismiss fiat money too quickly. It isn’t backed by nothing, it’s backed by all of the goods and services produced in the US. Those goods and services are currently about a quarter of the world’s total, which is far ahead from the second best, Japan.
People put money in America for the very reasons you stated, and it will stay there for those reasons. Without major changes the euro’s future is not bright because (a) they’re trying to take what was a very smart economic union and turn it into some sort of political union, which anyone familiar with European politics will tell you won’t work and (b) they are currently having problems with their unified monetary policy being an ill fit for all involved. The EU does not have the market transparency and labor flexibility that the US has, and probably never will because of deeply ingrained cultural and language issues.
Cookie Price Differences Explained
Well after much Googling, I found two definitive sources that say there are price differences in cookies. I found an article (word document, view as HTML) from the Wall Street Journal that talks about a price war in Michigan between neighbooring councils that had prices at $2.50 and $3.
Girls are told that if customers ask about the price difference, they should explain the economic factors at play — that the Metro council serves four times as many members as its “sister” council, and runs three more camps. Michigan Metro says its troops receive a profit of at least 45 cents on each box sold; in Macomb County, the minimum is 32 cents.
Oh that’s wonderful. Item 9 on this Girl Scout FAQ confirms that prices are set indivdually by over 300 councils.
Such scenarios have been repeated in other parts of the country, as many of the nation’s 330 Girl Scout councils go through their annual pricing debate. Officials say they can’t adopt the simple solution—setting one national price—because their parent organization, Girl Scouts USA, follows the Sherman Act, which prohibits price fixing.
With each council individually incorporated as a nonprofit organization, Girl Scout officials say the law, originally designed to rein in robber barons, could apply to them as well. “In being good citizens, we choose to abide by the spirit of the law,” says Girl Scouts USA spokeswoman Ellen Ach. At a national meeting of council leaders last month in San Diego, Girl Scouts USA officials reiterated their position that prices shouldn’t be discussed among local councils.
So there’s a legal reason for the price differences, but I think it’s highly unlikely that the Girl Scouts of America would be prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act, though personally I think the prices are a bit high. It’s supply and demand, and I think people would buy more at a lower price. They are also outpacing inflation: my simple calculations using the GDP Implicit Price Deflator, which is Greenspan’s favorite measure of inflation, gives me that if a box of Girl Scout cookies was $2.50 in 1996 it should be about $2.80 now, give or take a few cents. There haven’t been any changes in quality I know of, they have a great distribution model, and I don’t see why their costs would have gone up at all to justify that sort of price increase. Just my two dollars and fifty cents…
Girl Scout Cookie Observations
I’ve decided that nothing disappears quite as fast as Carmel deLite Girl Scout Cookies. Here’s a little tidbit: according to Interbake, Carmel deLite cookies make up half of their total cookie volume and are also the hardest to make. According to the site linked above, the cookies should be $3.50 a box, yet when I bought mine the other day I swear they were just $3 a box, because I bought three boxes for $9. Is there some sort of vast Girl Scout conspiracy behind this? Is it because I was in a small town?
Divine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Argument
As always, this is best appreciated as a PDF, but for the rest of you here’s the text:
The divine command theory is the view of morality in which what is right is what God commands, and what is wrong is what God forbids. This view is one that ties together morality in and religion in a way that is very comfortable for most people, because it provides a solution to pesky arguments like moral relativism and the objectivity of ethics. Continue reading Divine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Argument
Daylight Works
Got some really nice pictures in the country on Sunday. I hadn’t realized it until I was working on the photos, but the bulk of the pictures on the photolog are taken at night. This fits my personality because I’m very much a night person, but these daylight pictures have really nice colors, so perhaps I should try to take more pictures during the day.